


I’ll Be the One If You Want Me To

by nineofhearts



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-20
Updated: 2014-03-20
Packaged: 2018-01-14 05:47:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 21,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1255159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nineofhearts/pseuds/nineofhearts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurt is looking for an apartment in New York, and happens to meet (and move in with) Blaine while searching. Between class and work and everything else, they slowly get to know one another, and eventually fall in love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First, thank you to electrictoes for coming in and agreeing to beta my fic so late in the game. And then for putting up with my weird hours. Thank you to andintheendtheloveyoutake for being the first beta for my fic. You have no idea how grateful I am for having a pair of eyes that I knew take a look at my fic before anyone else did. Thank you to voicelikehelvetica for putting up with random vague ramblings about my fic, and never once complaining. And thank you to killerquinn, I am so excited to have art for this fic!
> 
> Art: http://nineofhearts4.tumblr.com/post/80180133233/ill-be-the-one-if-you-want-me-to

It was June and Kurt was looking for an apartment. At 21 he was living in New York City, and his step-brother was marrying his best friend. He had originally come to New York with Rachel with the intention of majoring in musical theater in order to fulfill his Broadway dreams. After two semesters at NYADA however, Kurt had found that he wanted to study fashion instead of musical theater. Yes, he enjoyed the stage and some of the people at NYADA, but at the same time, he’d had more fun with costume design than anything else he’d done there. So he’d finally made the decision in February to apply for a transfer to FIT. He could learn fashion in NYC. He’d still be near Rachel and Finn and the friends he’d made at NYADA, but he would also be able to pursue fashion. Plus, he could use his Vogue.com connections to his advantage.

Fast forward two years to April of his Junior year of college. Finn and Rachel had decided it was time to “finally” get married. They set the date for the end of July, with the wedding taking place in Ohio so that everyone could come. Plus, Rachel loved the idea of an outdoor wedding. Once they had settled on a location, they had asked Kurt to help them plan it. This had been followed by an assurance that he could still get an apartment with them in the fall. He would rather have to deal with a strange roommate than being their third wheel any longer. Perhaps he could get a place a bit closer to FIT and his new job at theSpotlight Diner.

That was how he’d ended up sitting in the coffee shop he frequented during midterms and finals, searching the internet for a roommate. After an hour he’d managed to email ten different possibilities about setting up an appointment to meet with them and then tour the apartment. His top three choices were: a guy named Henry Smith who lived about eight blocks from the main part of campus, another guy named Blaine Anderson who lived closer, but had slightly steeper rent, and Paul Richards and Billy Goodman who lived six blocks away. All of his possibilities were undergraduates or graduate students and they all had places that seemed a reasonable size by New York standards. It was only a matter of whether or not he could see himself getting along with the people living there, the price, and what the place looked like.

Five days later and he’d already met with options one and three. While the first one seemed like it could work (the guy seemed nice enough and the place was tidy), Kurt didn’t want to commit if he didn’t have to. The guy was 26 and had made it sound like he was getting pretty serious with his girlfriend. Good for Henry and his girlfriend, bad for Kurt and his desire to not have to move out soon. Option three was crossed off his list right away. The apartment was a _mess_ to put it lightly. Beer bottles everywhere and clothing not even contained to their respective bedrooms.

And that was how he came to be standing in front of an apartment with the initials “B.A.” written on the door. He was actually about a half an hour early because he had planned some extra time in case he got lost. As he was debating skulking outside the door for twenty minutes before knocking versus just knocking and catching - he glanced down at the note he was holding - Blaine Anderson off guard, Kurt heard footsteps approaching him from behind and someone breathing heavily. He spun around, and then froze. There was a man standing there bent over, panting. He was about the same age as Kurt and had short, curly brown hair.

After a moment the man looked up at him and, after wiping his hand on his shorts, held it out for Kurt to shake. He looked Kurt straight in the eyes and Kurt froze momentarily, taking in the warm hazel eyes that were looking up at him, before grasping the other boys hand to shake it.

“Blaine Anderson.”

“Kurt Hummel.”

“Oh! So you’re here to look at the apartment then?” Blaine glanced down at his watch slightly confused before looking back up at Kurt again and smiling politely, “I’m sorry, I totally thought we said noon-”

“We did, I just planned to get lost four or five times on my way here, but instead I actually had no trouble at finding the place, so I’m here early.” Kurt paused and then hurriedly said, “If that’s a problem I can go find a coffee shop or something and come back in fifteen minutes?”

“Oh, no it’s not a problem at all. You can come in now, just let me throw on some clean clothes or something – or, would you mind if I grabbed a shower real quick? I’m like covered in sweat right now.” As he said this, Blaine glanced down at himself and made a face.

“Yeah, sure, that’s fine.”

Kurt watched Blaine’s sweat-covered shirt cling to his back as he walked to the kitchen and pulled two glasses out of the cabinet, filling one with water. “Would you like anything to drink while you wait?” he asked while gulping his own water down. “I could make you coffee or something if you’d like?”

With a small laugh Kurt waved him off. “I’m sure I can find everything on my own, you go shower.”

Blaine looked slightly unsure for a moment, but then he merely pulled at his shirt while scrunching up his nose in disgust. “I am kind of really gross right now, a five mile run in this heat was a dumb idea. Alright,” he said backing towards the archway and speaking in a business-like manner, “mugs are in the cabinet by the microwave, coffee beans are next to that. Make yourself at home while you wait. I should only be ten minutes or so.” Turning, he walked out of the kitchen and through a door into what Kurt assumed was his room.

Kurt stood in silence for a minute, staring at the spot that Blaine had had just been standing, before mentally shaking himself and turning to the cabinet that Blaine had pointed out. Peering in, he saw a dozen mugs sitting there; at them all, he saw a few plain, solid colored ones, a red polka dotted one, a “World’s Best Brother” mug, a few NYC ones, one with a fancy (slightly familiar looking) D emblazoned on it, and a crazy looking Disney mug. Picking out a New York mug Kurt began making his coffee while poking around the kitchen curiously, trying to get an idea of who Blaine was and how he lived.

By the time Kurt heard Blaine turn off the shower, Kurt had poured himself a cup of coffee and settled in at the kitchen table, leaning back against his chair and gazing out of the window. When Blaine re-entered the room, heading straight for the coffee, Kurt took in his appearance. Blaine was wearing a navy blue t-shirt with the same red letter D that had been on the mug in the cabinet and a pair of tan capris. He was barefoot, and still wearing his watch, and his curly hair was now clean and damp. Blaine finished pouring coffee into his “World’s Best Brother” mug and sat down at the table across from Kurt.

Blaine took a sip of coffee while observing Kurt over the rim. Kurt finally drank from his own mug, and, after lowering it back down again, began to speak. “So how long have-” he stopped, looking from his coffee to Blaine. “Wow this coffee is really good. And I know it wasn’t my amazing button pushing skills that made it this delicious. How on earth is this so good?!”

Blaine let out a laugh. “I can’t just go around revealing my coffee bean mixing secrets to strangers now can I?” His eyes dancing as he spoke. “Then I would have to take ‘coffee wizard’ off my resume.”

Kurt chuckled and set his mug back down, looking up and smiling at Blaine. Before he could start asking his question again, Blaine spoke. “You want a tour? We can take the magical coffee with us if you want,” he teased. “And then we can talk about the place.” Kurt nodded and they both stood up.

“So this is the kitchen, I use it for general food storage purposes and coffee drinking needs.”

Laughing, Kurt nodded his head. “You cook food in here too sometimes?”

“Yeah occasionally,” Blaine shrugged. “I’m not all that great of a cook though, so I mostly stick to the stove top and the microwave.”   

“Well if I become your roommate, maybe I’ll teach you how to cook some meals... if you’re lucky.”

“You cook?”

“Yup. I started making dinner for my dad a few years after my mom died because I was tired of the three meals he could competently make.”

“Lots of practice then, I’ll have to keep that in mind.” Blaine led them out of the kitchen and back into the living room. “This is the living room. My parents insisted on giving me a flat screen. But my favorite part of this room is the view from the balcony. I didn’t actually think I would be able to get a good view without being in a skyscraper, but, look,” Blaine gestured outside.

Kurt walked out onto the balcony/fire escape and saw that Blaine was right. He had an excellent spot to look up and down the street and people watch. Retreating back inside after a few minutes, Kurt took in the piano that was adjacent to the balcony, the bookshelf, the stereo system, the flat screen TV, and the matching sofa set in the living room. He raised his eyebrow questioningly at Blaine, because this was not your average college-age student apartment.

Blaine blushed slightly. “Oh, the furniture and stuff? Yeah, umm,” he scratched the back of his neck somewhat nervously. “When my parents came down after I first moved in last summer my mom was appalled by the mismatched run down furniture and insisted on replacing it all. I told her not to bother but when I came back from class the day they left this was here.” He paused for a moment gazing at it all. Laughing slightly he continued, “For a second when I walked in I thought I’d somehow gone in the wrong apartment…”

“Wow, your parents sound really amazing to have done that for you.”

Blaine shrugged, “I think it’s the only way they know how to show support. They weren’t exactly thrilled when I told them I was going to go to college over five hundred miles away from home. They’d hoped I was going to be a bit closer, but grudgingly let me go because they could see how much it meant to me and because of the whole ‘Columbia’ thing.”

“My dad felt the same way. I mean, he always knew I was going to leave Ohio the second I could and head for New York, but it didn’t make it easy when the day finally came.”

“You’re from Ohio? I’m from Westerville! It’s like a half hour outside of Columbus.”

“Wow! Small world,” Kurt replied. “Glad to see someone else made it out then.”

They studied each other for a moment both wondering if they’d crossed paths before and what else they might have in common. Mentally shaking himself Blaine closed the fire escape window. “I guess it’s onto showing you the rest of the place then?”

Kurt nodded. Blaine led them a few steps and pulled a door open. Gesturing inside he said “This is my room.” Kurt poked his head in and looked around. In the brief look that he got, he saw that the room had a simple design and sleek wooden furniture. There was a bookshelf in the corner that was filled with a myriad of books and trinkets. On the wall was a collage of pictures that seemed to be from various stages of Blaine’s life. There was sheet music on the floor and a record player in the corner. Next to it was a large collection of CDs, records, and DVDs. The room as a whole was a bit cluttered, but none of it really surprised Kurt.

Moving further along Blaine pulled the next door open. “And this, this will be your room if you decide to live here. The bathroom’s right next to it and everything!”

Kurt gazed around the room from the doorway, and then walked in. Circling the room, he took in the plain walls, the two windows that afforded him a lovely view, and the decent sized closet in the corner.

“Would I be allowed to paint and decorate however I want?”

“As long as you don’t mess up the carpet you’d be free to do as you please with the room.”

Kurt smiled. “Excellent!”

As they walked out of the room, Kurt’s phone began to ring. Pulling it out and checking the caller ID, he saw that it was the caterers for Rachel’s wedding. “Shoot! I have to take this. It’s the wedding caterers,” he said, sending an apologetic look at Blaine.

Blaine looked at him, blinking confusedly. “The wedding caterers…?”

“Yeah, my friend Rachel is marrying my step-brother in a few weeks and I’m planning the wedding.”

“Oh! Okay.” Blaine said, eyes darting around the apartment. “Umm, so to wrap this up real quick then; if you want to move in or have any more questions you can just give me a call in the next few days and we’ll go over the details and such?”

“Sounds great! I’ll call you soon then. It was great meeting you.” And with that Kurt waved goodbye to Blaine, turned around, and left the apartment closing the door softly behind him while simultaneously answering the phone.

* * *

Kurt called Blaine two days later. He confirmed the price of his half of the rent and told Blaine that he wouldn’t be moving in until the beginning of August because he would be home for Finn and Rachel’s wedding. This had led to a discussion about summers in Ohio and how they compared to New York. Thirty minutes later Blaine had realized that he was running late to class so they quickly wrapped up the call with an agreement to meet up at Blaine’s apartment the next day around eleven to sign the paperwork and such.

After he hung up the phone, Kurt looked around his dorm room and smiled to himself. He was kind of really looking forward to living with Blaine. Not only would it be nice to no longer have to deal with the dorms, but it also seemed as though he and Blaine had a lot in common and would become fast friends. For now though, he had the wedding to be excited for (even though he still found it ridiculous that Finn and Rachel weren’t waiting until after college to get married). Between that and orchestrating his move to the apartment, Kurt had a lot to figure out before he could get completely excited for moving in with Blaine.


	2. Chapter 2

To be honest, Blaine was kind of excited. Kurt was going to be moving in tomorrow. Blaine would finally have a roommate to hang out with. Not to mention the fact that his new roommate was incredibly good looking and they had immediately gotten along, despite Blaine showing up covered in sweat and essentially abandoning him two minutes into their first meeting.

After spending his freshman year in the dorms at Columbia, Blaine had needed an apartment for the summer because he had gotten a job and had a circuit of places that he was playing informal gigs at on the side. His parents, who travelled a lot for work, were sad to hear that he wouldn’t be home much during the summer, but they’d been more than happy to help him pay rent. This had led to him opting out of the dorms for his sophomore year because most of the apartments wanted him to sign a lease that would last for at least a year. On the last day of his finals, Cooper had come by and helped him move in to the new place, and a few days later his parents had dropped by to see it, then forced brand new furniture on him. Not that he was really complaining about that.

The place had been kind of empty in a weird way though, what with it having two bedrooms. So Blaine had advertised for a roommate. And along came Kurt. Granted, he’d had two roommates before that, both of which had moved out quickly, but he didn’t really count those. Now however, Kurt was moving in and Blaine had a feeling he would stick.

In less than twenty four hours, he would be there. After three months of just him, his apartment, and the occasional friend dropping in, Blaine was ready.

Except he totally wasn’t.

His stuff was _all_ over the common space, there was nothing in the fridge, none of the dishes seemed to be washed, and, _seriously?_ Hadn’t he _just_ done his laundry?

Two hours later, Blaine was running around his apartment in a frenzy, throwing pillows everywhere when the door quietly opened behind him.

“Hello little brother,” Cooper said, leaning against the door frame as his eyes followed Blaine’s frantic movements. “What’s with all this?”

Blaine froze, the last pillow flying to the couch, and then slowly turned around. “Coop! What are you doing here?” He darted forward, stepping around the vacuum cleaner and out of place coffee table, to hug Cooper. “I thought you were going to be in LA until September at the very least.”

Cooper grinned and hugged his brother tightly. “Well Blainers-”

“Don’t call me that!” Blaine huffed. “You’re lucky I’m so excited to see you right now.”

Pulling out of the hug slowly, Cooper continued as if Blaine hadn’t interrupted him. “I got a role on a new tv show and I had to come out here for a week or two for some prep work. We’re filming in LA, but the director wanted a few things done here first.”

“That’s great, Coop! You should have told me right away! We should get dinner or something later in the week.”

“Lunch on Wednesday! I am all yours,” Cooper responded, clapping Blaine on the shoulder. “In the meantime are you going to explain what you’ve been up to here? I haven’t seen you in such a cleaning frenzy since… well, ever, actually.”

Blaine glared at Cooper. “Well if you must know, my new roommate, Kurt, is moving in tomorrow. And I just realized that my place was a bit of a mess. Hence all this,” finished Blaine, waving his hands around.

“Oooo, Kurt?” Cooper smirked at his brother and winked, “is he your secret boyfriend?”

“What?” Blaine exclaimed blushing slightly. “No!” Blaine chucked a pillow at Cooper who managed to catch it mid-air.

“Judging by that blush Blainey,” Cooper said pointing to Blaine’s cheeks. “I’d bet that there’s at least _something_ going on here.”

“No, there’s definitely not.” Cooper raised his eyebrows at Blaine, clearly trying to get him to spill. “Ok, fine. It’s possible that I might have a small crush on him. But I’m not going to pursue it! The guy’s going to be living with me.”

“I don’t see what the problem is.”

Blaine snorted. “Of course you don’t. The problem is that if I were to try and pursue this and he didn’t feel the same, or even if he did, one little misstep and everything would get awkward really fast. And what with the shared apartment and everything, we wouldn’t exactly be able to escape from each other. So we’re going to become friends and I’m going to hope these feelings disappear. I’ve only ever seen the guy twice, so who knows.”

“Blaine”

“Coop.”

“Just let me say this one thing, then I won’t say anything else on the topic.”

“Fine,” Blaine grumbled.

“If your feelings for him don’t go away? Please don’t run from them. I don’t want you ending up bitter, single, and full of regrets because you’re too afraid to fess up to your feelings and take a leap.”

“Coop,” Blaine said, putting his hand on Coopers arm. “I’ll keep that in mind. Assuming Kurt is in fact gay.”

“You made me get all serious and you’re not even sure that he’s gay?” Cooper exclaimed. incredulously.

Blaine shook his head chuckling, and went back to folding the blankets that were piled by the couch. “Sorry Coop. I’m pretty sure he is but I don’t want to go around making assumptions about the guy. For all I know he could bring more girls through his bedroom than Barney Stinson.” Cooper laughed and Blaine smiled. “Ok, probably not. But you get my point.”

“Yes, I guess I do.”

“Okay, so are you going to help me finish cleaning up this mess so we can get something to eat? Or am I going to have to make you leave.”

“As if you could get me to leave little brother. You’re tiny.” Cooper sighed in mock exasperation. “I guess I could help you out. As long as you don’t make me clean the bathroom.”


	3. Chapter 3

Kurt headed up the stairs carrying a giant box, followed closely by Finn who was carrying another box, Rachel having “volunteered” to stay with the car. Kurt had decided to just drive his Navigator back from Ohio after realizing that he was going to eventually want all of his things after college, and this was an excellent opportunity to move a lot of it.

Panting slightly, Kurt and Finn finally reached the fourth floor. Reaching the door of his new apartment, Kurt attempted to juggle the box he was carrying so that he could let them in. Just as he managed to pull out his key, the door swung open and a head popped out.

“Oh, hey Kurt!” Blaine said, eyes widening slightly in surprise “If I’d known you were here already I would’ve helped you with this! Here, I can take that box from you if you want.” Without waiting for a response, Blaine took the box from Kurt’s hands. “Come on in.”

Finn and Kurt followed Blaine inside. Once they had set the boxes down in his room, Kurt spoke. “Blaine, this is my brother Finn, Finn this is my new roommate, Blaine.”

Blaine stuck out his hand for Finn to shake, staring up at him a bit nervously. “It’s nice to meet you, Finn.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, man.” They all awkwardly stood in Kurt’s room for a minute.

“Alright! Let’s bring some more boxes up here before Rachel gets restless in the car,” Kurt said heading for the door.

“Rachel?”

“My wife,” Finn supplied for a confused looking Blaine while grinning broadly at being able to use the term “wife” in relation to Rachel.

“Oh yeah! I think I remember Kurt mentioning her. Congrats, man.”

Half an hour later, with the added help of Blaine, all of Kurt’s stuff was moved into the apartment, Rachel trailing along behind them on their final trip.

“Oh I love it Kurt!” She exclaimed looking around at the couches, the piano, and the view outside. “It looks so cozy.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” Kurt squealed.

“Do you all want to stay for lunch?” Blaine asked, coming out of the kitchen and handing glasses of water to everyone.

“That would be awesome!” Finn chimed in immediately.

Rachel smacked his arm lightly. “What my dear husband,” she grinned to herself as she said the word, “means to say is that we would love to stay for lunch if you would like. But we don’t want to impose when we can just get some food at our place.”

“No, no, don’t be silly. It’s fine. I’ll just whip up some salad and sandwiches if that’s alright with everyone?”

“Sounds great! I’ll be in my room trying to sort out what’s what.” Looking at Finn and Rachel, Kurt continued, “you two are welcome to join me or watch some TV or something.”

Blaine ducked into the kitchen to start lunch while Finn plopped onto the couch, grabbing the remote, and Rachel followed Kurt into his room.

Walking in, Rachel immediately plunked down on the bed. “Oh my god Kurt, you failed to mention that Blaine is _gorgeous_ when you told me about the place.”

Kurt glanced over at her from the closet where he was already beginning to hang his clothes. “Seriously Rachel?” She glared at him with her arms folded across her chest. “Okay, yes. He’s incredibly good looking, not to mention he seems very sweet and charming, but that’s not the important thing here. He’s nice and I think we’ll get along well, _and look at the view from this place._ ” Rachel continued to give him a look, ignoring his feeble attempt to distract her. “Okay, fine, I’m sorry I didn’t mention that he’s gorgeous. I was busy planning _your_ wedding and pulling together everything I needed to move.” Rachel finally smiled back at him. “And can we seriously please not talk about this when he’s about twenty feet away? I know there’s a door between him and us, but I really don’t want to start off this year with my roommate avoiding me because he overheard my best friend and I talking about how hot he was.”

Rachel sighed. “Fine Kurt, whatever you say,” pointing her finger in his face, she continued fiercely, “but we are talking about this next time you come over. Just so you know. You need a boyfriend so we can go on double dates.”

“Well that wouldn’t put any pressure on a relationship or anything,” Kurt said sarcastically.

“No, of course not,” Rachel agreed. “It would just be some fabulous double dates.”

Kurt rolled his eyes fondly before sitting down next to Rachel for a moment. “Rachel, sweetie, if I were to ask a boyfriend to go on a double date with you two, I would be inviting him to meet my married friends. My married brother and my best friend who is my sister-in-law. That would be a lot to expect from a guy unless we knew our relationship was going to be serious.”

* * *

A half hour later Blaine called them to the kitchen for lunch. They all crowded around the small circular table and sat down. Lunch somehow managed to not be as awkward as Kurt had worried it might be. After a few forced moments of small talk about the food and the move, they slipped into conversation about slightly more personal things.

"So Blaine, you've met most of my family, what about yours?" Kurt asked, folding his hands in his lap politely.

"Umm. Yeah," Blaine started awkwardly. "I have one brother and my parents live in Ohio, still married."

"Is your brother older or younger?" Finn asked.

"He's about 10 years older than me. We weren't all that close until recently. I mean we're still not _close_ per say, but we're getting there. Plus, he enjoys claiming brotherly connection in order to crash in my apartment sometimes. At random. Watch out for that." Blaine concluded, pointing a fork at Kurt in warning before continuing to eat his salad. "He's an actor, so he's a bit eccentric."

"I'm an actor too." Rachel piped up. "I have an audition for this part in an off-broadway production of West Side Story that I'm really excited about. It's a small part, but you have to start somewhere."

"That's exciting," Blaine smiled at Rachel, enjoying her enthusiasm.

"It is!" she exclaimed. "I got the audition over some of my classmates and the main cast looks-"

"Rachel." Kurt broke in, cutting her off with a look.

Blaine swallowed his mouthful of food and directed his next question to Finn. "What are you doing this year?"

"Me? I'm studying at NYU," Finn smiled proudly. "I'm going into teaching. I'm thinking about gym or becoming a football coach. Or maybe a music teacher of some sort. I still haven't figured it out quite yet."

"You've got time to figure it out, or you can just keep up with both," Kurt reminded him with a smile.

Finn replied around the food in his mouth, much to Kurt's chagrin. "Thanks man. I'm just glad I found a direction to head in."

"I'm thinking of becoming a music teacher too," Blaine broke in, "I was originally thinking of being a performance major, but I really enjoy teaching. The look on a person’s face when they finally understand something is priceless. Plus, teaching is less about beating your peers, and more about working as a team to help students reach their full potential. I’m sometimes too much of a team player to fight for things. Not that I would give up a solo or a part, just that I tend to want everyone to be able to shine their brightest."

"See Rachel, some people actually like to share the spotlight," Kurt said with a glare..

"Well," Rachel huffed. "We have no idea if he has any talent whatsoever. It might just be an excuse for not receiving solos."

"I'll have you know," Blaine said with a playful look in his eyes and a cocky grin on his face, "That I am an excellent singer. I got most of the solos in my high school glee club. It was an all-boys school so the plays were few and far between, meaning I never had the opportunity to try out for a play, but as far as singing is concerned, I'm not half bad. Plus I sang in the _King’s Island Christmas Spectacular_ during every winter break in high school."

"Well, did you ever win any awards?" Rachel asked, raising an eyebrow in challenge.

"As it just so happens, my glee club placed 24th at Nationals my senior year."

"Wait you competed in Nationals?" Kurt asked. "What group were you with?"

"The Dalton Academy Warblers," Blaine said with a proud smile, straightening his back as he spoke.

"Shut. Up." Kurt said through a mouthful of food. "We saw you guys perform."

"Yeah, you guys were scarily good. How'd you only place 24th?" Finn asked.

Blaine chuckled. "I think there was something with the judges about us being privileged kids from a private school and having no girls. But it was whatever. We got to compete at Nationals, which was amazing enough."

"Wait." Kurt said, hand over his mouth in shocked realization, reaching his other hand out to briefly grip Blaine’s. "You were the lead singer on Raise Your Glass."

"Yeah... wait you remember me? That's crazy."

"Yeah, no, I mean you had an amazing voice and stage presence, but mostly I remember how the stage lights literally shone off your head you used so much gel."

"I was a little gel crazy in high school," Blaine chuckled, ducking his head as a blush colored his cheeks. "I took a twelve step program and it helped a bit with my addiction. As you can see, my hair is no longer shellacked to my head."  

"Is there really a twelve step program?" Finn asked in disbelief.

"Well, if you count my friends staging an intervention and only letting me have one bottle of gel per month, then yes, there is a twelve step program."

"I can't believe your friends did that," Rachel shrieked incredulously.

"Damn. I should have done that in high school for Rachel and her animal sweaters." Kurt murmured into his food.

"What group were you all?"

"We were the New Directions," Rachel replied.

"The what?" Blaine spluttered.

"It's the dumbest name ever. New Directions," Kurt enunciated carefully to ensure the words didn't blend together.

"Oh, oh good. I was going to be concerned about how you guys were even allowed to compete."

"We placed first at Nationals our senior year."

"I remember hearing about you guys. We didn't see you perform, but every competition we were always afraid we'd have to face you." They all smiled, staring into space, reminiscing about their show choir days. Finally, Blaine broke the silence. "So what're your plans Kurt? I know you said something about fashion."

"My hope is to one day start a fashion line. It'll take me a while to get to that place, but if all goes well it'll happen in the next decade."

"Oh, it will definitely happen one day Kurt." Rachel said, patting Kurt's hand. "You have talent and passion. You'll go far."

"Thanks Rachel," Kurt smiled at her.

After lunch Finn and Rachel excused themselves to go back to their place, Finn muttering something about having to christen it as a married couple, resulting in Rachel smacking him lightly and then pulling him out of the apartment. Kurt and Blaine cleaned up and did the dishes together, Blaine filling Kurt in on various quirks of the apartment building and its occupants. Shortly after Kurt went back into his room to continue setting up, Blaine left for work at a nearby music store.


	4. Chapter 4

After spending a few weeks settling in and getting used to each other, Kurt and Blaine finally had a system. Kurt got up first in the morning, rolling out of bed and into the shower. By the time he finished in the bathroom, he headed into the kitchen, following the smell of coffee. There was usually a mug sitting out for him as Blaine passed by him to take his own shower.

Kurt was out the door ten minutes later, Blaine leaving a half hour after that. Both of them had a tendency to embed themselves in their classes and school work so they normally didn't see each other again until after dinner Monday through Thursday.

This routine worked well for them. If one of them was running late, the other was there to help them get on their way. Also, Kurt was saving twenty dollars a week on coffee because Blaine insisted on making his (admittedly delicious) coffee for him.

Come mid-September however, Kurt realized that they rarely got to spend any time together. Kurt tended to be up at all hours working on his designs, and Blaine had a tendency to disappear into the practice rooms at school for days on end, especially when he had a performance approaching. One morning, after not seeing Kurt for more than thirty seconds in the past two weeks, Blaine decided to attempt some sort of communication.

They'd both quickly realized that neither of them were morning people. They could deal with others, but before they left the house? Forget about it. So instead of trying to talk to Kurt, Blaine pulled out a white board marker and began to write a note on the board on their fridge. "Good morning Kurt! I hope you have a lovely day. Mac and cheese dinner tonight?"

Thirty minutes later Blaine hopped out of the shower and wandered into the kitchen half dressed. He put a bagel in the toaster and was about to pull the cream cheese out of the fridge when he noticed the fresh writing on the board.

"It's raining out Blaine. Honestly. Mac and cheese sounds great though! I'm forcing myself to take a break tonight, so TV watching or something? We haven't talked in ages."

Blaine grinned brightly before writing below Kurt's note. "Sounds great! And rain is lovely what are you implying?? Hate watch Treme? I noticed the DVR was full with it so... I hope you recorded it for hate watching otherwise this is awkward."

* * *

When Blaine got home that night, it was to find Kurt settled in on the coach, a few sketchbooks surrounding him. "Hey Kurt!"

"Hi," Kurt called, looking over his shoulder at Blaine. "Let me know when you're ready and I'll put my sketchbook away?"

"Sounds good," Blaine replied, grinning. He walked into his room, throwing his bag onto his bed before changing into his sweatpants and heading into the kitchen.

"I'll make the mac and cheese and then we can watch?"

“Sure! I’ll just finish up with this sketch,” Kurt replied cheerfully.

Twenty minutes later, they were snuggled under a blanket together, eating Mac and Cheese and insulting Treme, occasionally bursting into giggles at each other’s comments. Two hours later, Kurt’s head fell to rest on Blaine’s shoulder. Looking over, a slight thrill going through his heart, Blaine realized the Kurt had in fact fallen asleep. While disappointed that the action had not been voluntary, Blaine still found it sweet that Kurt felt comfortable enough to not immediately jolt awake. After watching him for a moment, Blaine realized that he should probably turn off the TV and settle Kurt under the blanket a bit, and for the love of god stop staring at Kurt because _that’s really creepy, Blaine!_

After staring a moment longer, Blaine begrudgingly tried to shift off the couch without disturbing Kurt. It was a difficult process, which was hindered by the cute snuffling noises Kurt made as Blaine moved him. It took him a few minutes but he finally succeeded in moving off the couch and laying Kurt down. He paused a moment, and then tucked the blanket around Kurt, who shifted slightly before sighing contentedly and stilling. With a smile, Blaine scooped up their dishes and brought them to the kitchen before heading to his own room. Tonight had been quite a success as far as the progress of their friendship was concerned; especially because they decided to instate a Treme watching night once a week.

* * *

Kurt woke suddenly to the sound of a dish clattering to the floor in the kitchen and a whispered curse.

“What?” he groaned, sitting up and glancing around the dark room while rubbing the crick in his neck.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to wake you up,” Blaine’s voice came from the kitchen. “I was trying my best to stay quiet,” he said, poking his head out the doorway sheepishly.

“I fell asleep while we were watching Treme last night, didn’t I?”

“Yeah… I wasn’t sure if I should wake you up or not. I made you some breakfast though?” he offered.

“Next time you should wake me up - god, this couch might look nice, and be comfortable to sit on, but it’s a _killer_ on the neck.” He massaged his neck for a moment before glancing back up at Blaine. “What time is it even?”

“Nine am? Your schedule says you don’t have to be anywhere until later so I figured it would be fine to let you sleep…”

“It’s Saturday right?” Kurt asked, slumping back down on the couch with a groan.

“Yup!” Blaine replied. “You want me to bring you coffee and pancakes?”

“Would you? That would be amazing.”

“They’ll be done in… five minutes maybe? I just want to finish with this batch.”

“Of course,” Kurt said, watching Blaine duck back into the kitchen with a nod. “I’m just going to go take a quick shower or something, _god this couch is awful_ ,” Kurt mumbled as he swung his feet onto the floor. “There’s no way anyone can actually sleep on this.”

“It pulls out into a bed!” Blaine called out from the kitchen. “It’s probably a bit more comfortable.”

“Ugh, well, either way, don’t let me sleep on it ever again.”

* * *

A few hours later, Kurt showed up at the diner for his eight hour shift, still trying to get the crick out of his neck.

“Good morning, Sunshine,” Dani greeted him cheerfully as he walked over to her to get his table assignment.

“Well aren’t you energetic this morning,” he replied with a grin. “Good night last night?”

“The _best_. Santana and I-”

“Nope, no. Stop right there,” Kurt interrupted, covering his ears as he noticed a wicked glint in her eyes. “I don’t need details. I’m just happy to hear you had a good time.”

“Okay, okay,” she laughed, pulling his hands off his ears. “I won’t say anything else. How was _your_ evening?”

Kurt shrugged, rolling his neck as he tried to get rid of the kink. “It was good.”

“That’s all I get? Wait- why are you doing that?” she asked, eyeing his neck. “Did you have a sleepover? A _naughty_ sleepover?”

“Oh my god Dani,” Kurt said, his voice going up. “ _No,_ I did not, thank you very much. We’re at _work_!”

“Would your answer be different if we weren’t at work?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

“ _No.”_ He picked up a nearby rag and began cleaning the counter. “No. It was- Blaine and I watched a few episodes of Treme last night and I feel asleep on the couch, that’s all.”

“Blaine’s the new roommate, right?”

“Yeah,” Kurt said with a smile.

“Wait, what’s that smile? Kurt Hummel, are you _sleeping_ with your roommate?” she teased.

“Dani!” he exclaimed, smacking her with the rag. “We’re not _sleeping_ _together_ ,” he hissed. “We get along well. We hate watched Treme together last night, it was a lot of fun. And then I fell asleep on the couch, and now my neck is messed up.”

“Well, does you two getting along well mean I get to meet him soon? You’ve been living together for like a month and I still couldn’t pick him out of a lineup.”

“Sure, we can arrange that at some point, just- we’ll talk about it later. I think Gunther is going to fire us both if you don’t go deal with our customers now.”


	5. Chapter 5

“Hey Kurt?” Blaine said, poking his head into Kurt’s room one Monday a few weeks later, “You don’t have anything planned for Saturday night, right?”

Kurt looked up from his work with a raised eyebrow. “...I don’t believe I do. Why?”

“Katy Perry has a show at Madison Square Garden on Saturday,” Blaine stated, walking into Kurt’s room and sitting on the corner of his bed.

“And this concerns me how?” Kurt asked, confused.

“Cooper got me two tickets. And he can’t go anymore, and my friends from school are all going to some other concert, so…” Blaine stared at him expectantly.

Kurt sighed, knowing that he was going to say yes. “You want me to go with you, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Blaine nodded. “They’re good seats and you won’t have to do anything but go with me. You don’t even have to pay for your ticket,” Blaine rushed to add. “And I’ll buy you some food when we get there.”

“I’m going to need a _lot_ of popcorn.”

“So you’ll go with me?” Blaine asked excitedly, bouncing slightly on the bed.

“Yeah, sure,” Kurt rolled his eyes a little. “Who am I to say ‘no’ to a free concert _and_ free popcorn?”

“I bet you’ll enjoy her costumes! She has so many eccentric ones, I’m sure you can find a way to translate that into something to do with your classes.”

“Oooh that’s true,” Kurt said, tilting his head to the side. "Most of my classes this semester have been geared towards men's fashion specifically, but I bet I could make it work."

"See! Something for everyone."

There was a long moment where Blaine just grinned at him before standing up and clasping him on the shoulder briefly. "Well, I should let you get back to your work," he walked backwards to the door as he spoke. Once he reached it, he twirled around and shut it. There was silence for a moment, and then Kurt heard him yell out, "goodnight!" before closing his own door.

How he had ended up sharing an apartment with such a dork, Kurt did not know.

* * *

On Friday night, Kurt found himself in front of Rachel and Finn's apartment, holding cookies that he'd made for dessert.

"Kurt!" Rachel exclaimed, pulling him into the apartment mere moments after he had knocked. "How have you been? I haven't seen you in forever!"

"Well, that's why we're doing this, isn't it?" Kurt laughed, hugging her. "We never get to see each other any more, and talking on the phone isn't good enough."

"Precisely. Finn’s out buying some final ingredients, but he should be back soon, and then we can make food together and eat.” Rachel tugged his arm, pulling him into the kitchen. “In the meantime, you should tell me all about how living with Blaine is going. It sounds like it's been better than my NYADA roommate was," she said with a shiver.

“It’s actually going really well. I mean, we sometimes go ages without really seeing each other, but things are good.”

“So your crush on him has gone away?” Rachel asked with a raised eyebrow.

Kurt rolled his eyes before sitting down at the table. “No. It will though. I hope. He’s just… the more I get to know him, the more reasons I find to like him, you know?”

“Uh oh.” Kurt glanced up at Rachel.

“‘Uh oh’ what?” Kurt demanded when she didn’t say anything else for a moment.

“You’re totally falling for him,” she said, sitting down at the table next to him.

“You sound worried for someone who was all encouraging and teasing me about it a few weeks ago!” Kurt groaned, burying his face in his arms lifting his head up to look at her. “Did I mention that he invited me to a Katy Perry concert tomorrow?”

“Like… on a date?” Rachel asked, a confused look on her face. “But you just said your crush on him was going to go away.”

“It’s not a date… it’s… I don’t know, his brother got him tickets or something and suddenly can’t go, so he asked me to join him. As a friend. And I agreed because he knows how to work a sad face.”

“You’re practically immune to people’s sad faces!” Rachel argued. “You caved right away, didn’t you?”

“Maybe.”

“Oh god, you do have it bad for him, don’t you?”

“This is why I’m concerned!” Kurt exclaimed. “I can’t have feelings for him, because inevitably, something will happen - or not happen- and things will become awkward between Blaine and I.”

“What if he returned those feelings though?” Rachel inquired.

“In the very small chance that he does, so what? Nothing can happen. We live together,” he stated, finality in his voice. “I can barely deal with relationships when I get a break from the person, can you imagine starting to date someone that you’ve recently met, while you’re living with them?”

“I guess you have a point,” Rachel sighed, deflating a little. “I still don’t think you should write him off completely though. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile this much when saying a boy’s name since you met Adam.”

“Well, we both know how well that went.”

“Quite well until he moved back to London!”

“Exactly,” Kurt snorted, glaring at the table. “He put an ocean between us when we broke up. I don’t think Blaine would go to such an extreme if by some crazy chance we did date, but he certainly wouldn’t want to be sharing an apartment with me anymore.”

* * *

Saturday night found Kurt and Blaine at the Katy Perry concert. Before meeting Blaine, Kurt never would have thought he would be dragged to a Katy Perry concert. It wasn’t that he hated her music, because he didn’t, he just never actively sought it out, it was that he was normally able to worm his way out of this kind of stuff if he wasn’t interested in going. He had not counted on Blaine, however, with his Katy Perry obsession, free extra ticket, and pleading puppy dog eyes. So now he was going to be forced to suffer in the middle of an arena full of screaming girls and one Blaine Anderson, with only a large bucket of popcorn to keep him sane.

As the lights focused center once more and music started up, the screaming intensified. Seconds later Katy Perry entered the stage and Blaine, clearly abandoning any pretense of being calm or rational, grabbed Kurt’s arm while jumping up and down, cheering loudly with the rest of the crowd as California Girls began playing through the speakers.

* * *

Halfway through the show, the crowd settled down as Katy began her acoustic set.

Just as Kurt was about to give up on guessing the song, Blaine leaned over and spoke in his ear. “This is ‘Thinking of You.’ I bet you would love the music video actually.” Kurt jumped a little at the sudden voice in his ear, but managed to quickly settle his racing heart to a somewhat more reasonable level. “It’s World War Two themed, and there are some great period costumes.”

Tamping down on fluttery feeling in his stomach at Blaine’s proximity, Kurt turned to respond. “It sounds like it’s going to be upsetting, honestly. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m liking this song, but it’s not entirely happy, and throwing World War Two in there…?”

Kurt glanced at Blaine, and saw him attempting to bite back his grin. “It might be a little sad, I’ll let you cry into my shoulder if you want to though.”

Kurt shoved him lightly, leveling him with a glare before returning most of his attention to the stage. “You wish, Anderson.”

* * *

After ten long minutes of listening to the crowd cheer and chant, waiting for an encore, Katy finally returned to the stage. Once the roar to died down a little, she plunged into Teenage Dream.

When Kurt glanced over at Blaine, he was surprised to see that he was now fairly calm (in comparison to the rest of the show at least). As Kurt watched him, Blaine moved slightly to the music and belted out the lyrics with a brilliant smile on his face. Halfway through the song, Kurt glanced down and noticed that Blaine seemed to be doing some kind of shuffle-step along to the music.

Kurt shook his head, chuckling quietly to himself, and turned his attention back to the main stage, while watching Blaine out of the corner of his eye.

After two more songs, the concert was finally over. The lights came up and the audience began to disperse, gathering their stuff while talking animatedly amongst themselves. Blaine, however, plopped down in his seat, happy grin still plastered on his face.

After a moment, Kurt slowly sank into his own seat and waited for Blaine to speak.

“...She was perfect Kurt.” Kurt looked over at him, shaking his head and smiling affectionately at the blissed out look in his face. “You can’t even deny it. I saw that smile on your face during Teenage Dream.”

Kurt sighed in mock exasperation, unwilling to mention that the smile was mostly because of _Blaine_ not Katy. “Fine Blaine, I enjoyed the concert.” Blaine grinned up at him while Kurt rolled his eyes. “I was actually surprised by her voice. Plus, it didn’t hurt that I was next to Mr. Katy Perry.”

Blaine pretended to glare at Kurt for a moment before he gave in and smiled. “Hey, you can’t deny that we would make quite the pair.”

Kurt snorted loudly. “Yeah, yeah, okay, Anderson. What do you say to leaving so that they can clean up? We can go grab some coffee or something. I need to wind down from all that energy.”

“I’m not sure how coffee is supposed to lower your energy,” Blaine exclaimed, bouncing out of his seat, “but let’s do it!”

Kurt followed Blaine out, watching him skip down the aisle, singing “Last Friday Night” too loudly. His heart was definitely in way too deep with this boy.


	6. Chapter 6

"What's wrong with you?" Kurt looked up from the spot on the counter that he was moodily cleaning, to see Dani eyeing him critically.

"What do you mean?" he grumbled, not in the mood to talk about it.

"Come on," she said, walking around the counter and bumping her hip against his playfully. "Something is clearly up, every time you're not directly interacting with a customer you're over here looking like you have the world on your shoulders."

"I don't know," Kurt sighed, tossing the rag he had been holding into a bucket. He turned to look at Dani, "Blaine and I went to a Katy Perry concert last night."

“Okay, so you guys went to a concert together, and…?” she prodded.

Kurt sighed, “And I am definitely in love with him.”

“Tell him!” she said excitedly, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Eyeing him critically for a moment, she stopped moving  mid bounce. “Oh, wait, you’re not happy about this. Why aren’t you happy about this?”

“He’s my _roommate,_ Dani. I can’t just - even if he _did_ like me back, it would be a recipe for disaster. That would put so much pressure on a relationship, and if he _doesn’t_ like me, I’d be stuck feeling uncomfortable in the place I live.”

“I guess that’s true. Hold on.” Dani darted across the diner to deliver food to one of her tables before returning. “So you don’t want to talk to him about it?”

“Not right now, no.” Kurt said with a firm shake of his head. “If I still like him after school gets out, maybe I’ll bring it up. But I don’t know, probably not. We just do so well living together and I don’t want to ruin that balance.”

“I guess I understand that,” Dani conceded. “Although you are talking to the girl who started dating her coworker the day she met her.”

Kurt laughed, “And this is why I have no one good to go to for advice.”

“Well how about you come out with us to the club this weekend. You can let loose without Blaine there and see if anyone catches your eye. And if not, well, it should at least be fun?”

Kurt eyed her for a moment, not sure what to make of the suggestion. “Yeah, I guess I could do that,” he said with a resigned sigh. “I wouldn’t want to do anything crazy like bring a guy back to my place - Blaine and I never even talked about the rules around having people over for sex - but I guess trying to find someone who isn’t Blaine to ogle can’t hurt.”

“That’s the spirit!” Dani cheered. “Now let’s get back to work before our customers complain.”

* * *

A week and a half later, Kurt was leaving the diner, looking forward to having an unexpected free afternoon at home, when his phone rang.

“Hey Rachel,” Kurt said, answering the phone with a sigh and putting his ipod back into his bag.

“Hi. What are you doing tonight?” She asked, not even pausing for him to ask how her day was.

“I was planning on working on some homework and maybe going to bed early, why?” he replied warily.

“Well, I kind of need to just get out of the apartment for a few hours tonight. Finn’s having some friends over and I don’t want to have to deal with that, so is it alright if I come over there. I was thinking we could have a girls’ night or something and just watch a movie at your place? Invite Dani to join us? Please?” she added excitedly.

Kurt mentally ran through his initial evening plans before deciding that everything he had wanted to do could be put off another night. “Sure, we can do that. Come over at like six and we can order pizza or something. I’ll text Dani and Santana too.”

“Yes! You’re the best! See you later,” she said happily, hanging up just in time for Kurt to head down to the subway.

* * *

When Kurt heard Blaine return to their apartment a little after five, he saved his essay and headed into the living room.

“Hey, how was your day?” Blaine asked, looking up from the fridge as he pulled a drink out. “You were gone extra early this morning.”

"Yeah, I had to get to work early to talk to Gunther. My afternoon class got cancelled though, so I got to come back home early."

"You're making me jealous," Blaine pouted, settling down on the couch. "I'm pretty sure my professor wanted to keep us late, but everyone started packing up loudly at four, so she had to let us go."

"Well," Kurt said, finally deciding to sit on the other end of the couch. "I can't go back in time and cancel your class for you, but I can extend an invitation to movie night? Rachel and Dani are coming over, and you're welcome to join us."

"Dani?" Blaine inquired, eyebrows raised.

"She works at the diner with me, I think you two would get along well. Especially because Santana can't make it, so she won't have to focus on keeping her in line."

"Santana's the one you went to high school with who almost gave me a heart attack that time she came over, right?"

"That would be the one," Kurt grinned at Blaine and nudged him lightly with his socked foot. "I promise Dani is no where near as scary as Santana pretends to be."

"And you're sure it would be okay with both of them if I joined you guys?"

"Of course," Kurt assured him. "I wouldn't have invited you if it hadn't been. In fact, Dani has been wanting to meet you for a while now."

"Has she now?" Blaine asked, a glint in his eye, moving his feet so that they were sitting in Kurt's lap.

Kurt rolled his eyes, trying not to think about how he was going to have to make sure she didn't say anything that would make Blaine realize he had a crush on him. "Don't get any ideas, she might not be as vicious as Santana can be when you first meet her, but she's definitely not someone to try to pull anything on."

"Is this your way of telling me that I shouldn't try to get revenge on Santana through her?"

"Yes. Now if you'll excuse me," Kurt said, lifting Blaine's feet as he got up. "I have an essay to try to finish before they get here."

"When's that?"

"In like... an hour. And then we're ordering pizza once they get here, so don't worry about dinner."

* * *

Instead of knocking on the door like normal people, Rachel and Dani burst into the apartment using the emergency key Rachel had talked Kurt into making for her.

“We’re here!” she trilled, startling Blaine and Kurt who had been peacefully watching a rerun of Friends while they waited.

“Rachel!” Kurt scolded, putting a hand over his heart as if to calm it. “Don’t just burst in here like that!”

“You must be Dani,” Blaine greeted, talking a few steps towards the door and sticking his hand out for her to shake. “Kurt’s told me all about you.”

“Has he now?” Dani asked, a smile playing on her lips as she shook Blaine’s hand and glanced over at Kurt. “I’ve heard a lot about you as well.”

"Okay, first of all, I've barely told Blaine anything about you Dani. Now. Less talking, more pizza ordering," Kurt said, pulling out a few menus to try to distract Dani from saying anything further.

"I bet you tell everyone about me," Dani said, bumping her shoulder lightly against his and winking. "Where would you be without me?"

Kurt grinned, taking her teasing to mean she wasn't going to spill the beans. "Probably living with Santana instead of Blaine."

Dani laughed, "Exactly, and then you never would have met Blaine."

Kurt rolled his eyes at her, but Blaine broke in before he could speak. "I'm sure we would have met somehow, I mean, the New York theater scene is a surprisingly small place once you start getting to know people."

"I thought we were picking a pizza to order," Rachel groaned, joining their little circle around the menus. "Let's order from Tony's, they use local produce, and their delivery boy on Fridays is really cute."

"Rachel!" Kurt said, purposely widening his eyes in horror. "What would Finn say?"

"Same thing he always says, 'If you hook up with him, be sure to get us a free pizza out of it,'" she quipped, doing an impressive imitation of Finn.

"Seriously?" Blaine asked, looking more than a little shocked.

"Yup," she shrugged. "It's our little joke. He knows I would never do that, so he likes to pretend we'd get an endless supply of free pizza if it happened."

"It must be nice being married," Blaine sighed wistfully.

"Most of the time it is," Rachel replied, patting him on the arm. "It's hard work sometimes though. And it's definitely not something to do unless you're sure."

"Okay, enough marriage talk for the moment, ugh," Dani broke in. "Let's decide on this pizza. Two larges from Tony's? I like bacon on mine."

"Ew. No."

"Yes, please, bacon," Kurt readily agreed.

"What do you want, Rachel?" Blaine asked. "The two of us can split it, and they can eat the other one."

"Veggie?"

"Alright, let's do it."

* * *

They ended up watching one of Dani's favorite movies - okay, it happens to be one of Kurt's favorites as well - Say Anything. After a prolonged musical versus any other movie argument that Rachel waged for twenty minutes, they had all agreed that Say Anything would be a sufficient compromise. It captured the romanticism of the musicals Rachel had been suggesting, but was low on musical numbers.

They didn't talk much throughout the movie. There were a few comments made here and there about a scene or a funny moment, but none of them liked to talk through the whole thing.

When the movie ended, Kurt looked over to find Blaine asleep, his head resting on Kurt’s shoulder as it had been since the middle of the movie. He looked up to see Dani and Rachel exchanging looks and turning the TV off.

“Well, we’ll just,” Dani gestured at the door, biting back a wicked smile that Kurt didn’t like the look of. “Get out of your way.”

Kurt considered getting up and seeing them out, just to keep Dani from saying anything at work the next day, but decided to just leave it alone. “Careful with the door on the way out,” he whispered quietly. “And please, please, be safe walking home.”

“You just worry about dealing with Blaine,” Rachel said with a grin, before walking out the door.

Dani was halfway out before she stopped and turned back. “I’m crashing at Rachel’s tonight actually - closer to the diner and all that, but I’ll text you when we get there?”

“Okay, bye Dani,” Kurt whispered, waiting for the door to close before focusing his attention on Blaine. He couldn’t just leave him here, the couch was just not good to sleep on, but waking people up was always just so awkward.

After a moment of staring (and a reminder that if he _kept_ staring his behavior was going to migrate permanently into the “creepy” category), Kurt slowly shifted, moving a pillow to support Blaine’s head as he stood up. He could just clean up the living room, and then revisit the situation if Blaine didn’t wake up from that.

Apparently Blaine’s impeccable manners weren’t formally programmed into his system, because when Kurt returned to the living room ten minute slater, he was _still_ sleeping, only now he was sprawled out more.

Kurt sighed, resigning himself to having to wake Blaine up. “Blaine?” he whispered, kneeling down so he was level with Blaine’s head. “It’s time to get up.”

Blaine shifted a little, digging his face further into the couch before stilling. “Blaine,” Kurt whispered more loudly this time. “Come on, time to get up.”

“Don’t wanna,” Blaine mumbled after a moment, tugging his blanket closer.

“Come on,” Kurt insisted, only talking a little lower than he normally would. “Up! Your bed is just steps away, and I _promise_ it is much more comfortable than this couch.”

There was another pause and then Blaine sat up suddenly, the blanket pooling around his waist. “Okay, fine, you win, I’m- hey,” Blaine glanced around the room before his gaze landed back on Kurt. “Where’d everyone else go?”

“Home,” Kurt stated simply, moving to stand up.

“But what about the movie?” he asked, blinking in confusion.

“You fell asleep part way through, and we finished it, sleepyhead,” Kurt laughed, patting him on the head lightly.

Blaine looked around once more before slumping back on the couch. “Of course I did.”

“Okay pouty Mago, I’m going to bed. Don’t sleep out here, you will regret it.”

“Yes Mom,” Blaine sighed, pushing the blanket off of him.

Kurt rolled his eyes, grinning broadly as he closed his bedroom door behind him. Whether or not anything ever came of his crush, Kurt would be forever happy that the two of them had become friends over the past few months.


	7. Chapter 7

Six days before Thanksgiving, Blaine entered the apartment and plunked down on the couch next to Kurt with a sigh. Kurt glanced up from his textbook to look at him. Seeing the defeated slump in his shoulders, Kurt closed his book.

“What’s up?” Kurt inquired “Normally you won’t stop bouncing off the walls when you get back on Friday afternoons.”

Blaine sighed again and then looked at Kurt. “Cooper called me.”

“...Okay?”

“He’s having Thanksgiving with his girlfriend and her family. I mean, he’s not really abandoning me, because I’m the one that pushed him to go, but I was just really looking forward to the two of us hanging out and having Thanksgiving together.”

Kurt watched Blaine thoughtfully as he talked about the parade and their favorite balloons, and lying on the couch motionless for hours after eating. Eventually Blaine finished talking and went to get a drink in the kitchen. When he came back, Kurt finally spoke. “Why don’t you come to Finn and Rachel’s with me? I know it won’t be the same, but I’m sure they’d love to see you, and I know I’d appreciate having someone there to stop me from throwing food at them when they inevitably start sucking face halfway through dessert.”

Blaine stared blankly back at Kurt for a moment. “I, um, you’re sure you wouldn’t mind? I wouldn’t be miserable here on my own you know.”

“ _Yes_ Blaine. I am sure that none of us would mind you being there. In fact after you spent all of last week raving about your pie making skills every chance you got, I expect you to make us some pie to bring over.”

A smile lit Blaine’s face. “Ok, ok I can do that. I was planning on making three for Cooper and I... wait, I can make more now!” Blaine jumped on the couch in excitement. “Kurt! Kurt! I can make blueberry, and apple, and pumpkin, and pecan, and maybe cheesecake pie, and cherry!”

Kurt watched as Blaine leapt off the couch, over the coffee table, and ran into the kitchen where Kurt heard pots banging around and cabinets opening and closing. “Blaine, calm down” Kurt called after him. “You don’t need to make si- wait did you say cheesecake pie?” Kurt threw his stuff on the floor and chased after Blaine. “Is that really a thing?” he asked as he reached the kitchen.

“What?” Blaine asked from where he was standing at the counter, already surrounded by four cookbooks, an eight pound bag of flour, and numerous other cooking supplies.

“Cheesecake pie. Is that actually something in existence? Because if you can make that, then I am yours until the end of time.” Kurt blushed bright pink, realizing what he had just said. He had definitely _not_ meant to say that, but, luckily, Blaine didn’t seem to have noticed.

“Cheesecake pie is definitely a thing. We’ll have to see if I can pull it off though,” Blaine said with a grin, flipping through a cookbook. “Now out of the kitchen, you have studying to do and I have pies to make.”

* * *

 

The next day, Kurt was walking back from work when his phone rang. “Hey Rach, what’s up?”

“Not much really, I got out of rehearsal an hour ago, and I’m grocery shopping now. I wanted to make sure that you’re bringing the mashed potatoes, and that you don’t need anything else for the turkey?”

“I’ve actually been meaning to talk to you about Thanksgiving, I-”

“You are not cancelling on me Kurt Hummel,” Rachel interrupted, a note of panic in her voice. “I can’t cook that bird properly-”

“Rachel, it’s-”

“-And we’ve been looking forward to this for _months_ ,” she huffed.

“Rachel,” Kurt broke in. “I’m still coming to dinner!”

“Oh,” Rachel sighed in relief. “You should have just told me that!”

“I was about to and then you went all crazy on me,” Kurt said, rolling his eyes.

“Whatever, what’d you want to discuss?”

“Blaine’s brother changed his plans, so now Blaine’s free for Thanksgiving… is it alright that I invited him to join us?”

“That sounds lovely,” Rachel agreed. “Less leftovers, and time with Blaine.”

“He’s also planning on making five or six pies, so please don’t buy any at the store.”

“He’s making us pies?”

“Yup!” Kurt said happily, darting around the slow tourist couple walking in front of him. “One of them is going to be cheesecake!”

“Okay, seriously Kurt, how are you not dating this boy?”

“Rachel!” Kurt scolded. “We’ve talked about this. He’s my _roommate_ , and it could get _awkward_ , and I don’t even know if he likes me like that. We work fine as friends, and I’m not messing that up just because I have feelings for him. I don’t think I could handle living on your couch.”

“Okay, okay. Just get a boyfriend soon. I found a whole list of double date ideas.”

“If Finn doesn’t want to go to museums with you-”

“Kurt!” Rachel laughed into the phone. “Stop it. It’s not just that. I just want to go on a double date with my best friend and see him enjoying himself with a boyfriend in tow.”

“When I one day have a boyfriend, I will _consider_ this double date thing. But I’m not going to just rush into a relationship for your benefit. We both know how well my last attempt at that went.”

“That’s because you went to a _club_.”

“Well, maybe I’m just not ready for a relationship right now.”

“Whatever you say Kurt. As long as you’re happy, then I’m happy. And if Blaine brings a cherry pie, I’ll be even happier.”

Kurt rolled his eyes fondly at this. “I’ll let him know.”

* * *

 

Instead of going to the Macy’s Day Parade, they turned on the TV and let it play in the background as they cooked some food to bring over to Finn and Rachel’s at two. Things were going well until something the announcers said caught Kurt’s attention and he promptly dropped everything - the spoon he’d had in his hand was now on the floor - and ran into the living room shouting in excitement and yelling at Blaine to come look.

Blaine put down the pie that he was working on to join Kurt. “What is it? What’s the- oh,” Blaine said, coming to a halt next to Kurt, staring down at the TV. “Is that-?”

“I think Barney is trying to break free,” Kurt said, reaching out to grip Blaine’s arm tightly.

“Is this a thing that happens every year?” Blaine asked, briefly glancing down at Kurt’s hand before returning his attention to the TV. “I don’t remember it happening last year, although I don’t think I really watched the parade last year so…”

“I don’t know, but I’ve never seen it happen before! Be free, Barney, be free!” Kurt said, waving his arms at the TV and letting go of Blaine’s arm.

They both watched in silence for another minute before a tearing noise announced Barney ripping into pieces, parts of him blowing away in the wind while the rest of him was pulled back to Earth.

“Well _that_ was a let down,” Kurt muttered.

“Okay, back to the kitchen,” Blaine said. “You have potatoes to mash, and I have pies to put in the oven,” Kurt turned towards the kitchen, and almost stopped when he felt Blaine put his hands on his shoulders to guide him into the kitchen from behind.

“I just have to put the last two pies in and then I’ll be done,” Blaine announced, when they entered the room.

“Perfect,” Kurt replied, trying to shake off the phantom feeling of Blaine’s hands so he could focus. “These potatoes are almost done being mashed, and then they’re almost ready because I think I’ll throw them in the oven at Rachel’s.”

* * *

 

At 2pm on the dot, Kurt knocked on Finn and Rachel's door, balancing food on his hip while Blaine stood next to him trying to protect all the pies he had made. He hadn't trusted Kurt with them, so Kurt merely laughed at his struggles.

A minute later, Finn opened the door, letting them in as he called over his shoulder at Rachel. "They're here!"

"Good! Have them bring the food in here. If Kurt deems the turkey ready then I think it'll be time to eat."

Kurt  hurried towards the kitchen, Blaine following behind him at a slower pace, trying to keep the pies from falling.

Following a spat between Kurt and Rachel concerning presentation of the food, Kurt’s attempt at stealing a bite of cheesecake pie was thwarted by Blaine threatening to stab him with a fork if he got any closer. Shortly thereafter, they were ready to eat.

"I know this is our first Thanksgiving without our parents, but I'm glad the four of us could get together in our own makeshift family to celebrate mine and Finn's first Thanksgiving as a married couple. Since it's tradition to go around the table and say what we are thankful for, I'll go first. I am thankful to have such a wonderful husband by my side. I'm also thankful for the teachers at NYADA who have bowed down to my talent in order to give me the lead role in our production of Mary Poppins. Your turn Finn."

"I'm thankful for... my lovely wife, and umm. I'm thankful for my decision to pursue teaching as my career."

Kurt spoke up next. "I'm thankful for having found such a wonderful apartmentmate. He definitely beats my prior roommates who constantly sexiled me." Kurt flashed a grin at Blaine.

"I'm also thankful that we were all able to get together this year, even if I miss my dad and wish we could have returned to Ohio for the holidays."

"I'm... I'm thankful for how all of you have accepted me into your little family despite only knowing me for a few months. I'm also thankful that I have a roommate now, he's a really good cook, so I think I'll let him stay."

"Hey!" Kurt cried indignantly from beside him. "Keep that up and I won't give you any Christmas treats."

"Nooo, not the Christmas cookies. I'll be good."

Rachel watched the two of them with a smile on her face before nudging Finn to carve the turkey.

"Here we go, the first cut." Kurt watched as Finn carved the turkey. The only reason he was trusting Finn with this honor was because he'd done it once or twice in the past. Plus, Kurt was worried he would just make a mess of it, so he might as well pass the stressful ceremonial moment on to his more than willing stepbrother.

The meal was a rather relaxed affair. At one point Kurt looked up from his bickering with Finn over the best way to eat pie (definitely with the ice cream _next_ to it, not on top), to catch Blaine watching him with a fond smile on his face, before he looked away and started talking with Finn.

When they finished, Rachel and Kurt cleaned up from the meal after refusing Blaine's offer to help, shooing him and Finn off to watch the football game they were eyeing.

* * *

They were walking home when Kurt finally brought up the cheesecake pie because he needed to stop thinking about just grabbing Blaine’s hand while they walked. “I don’t know how you did it, but that pie was even more delicious than I thought it would be.”

“Really now? I would never have guessed with the way you snatched it right out of Finn’s hands,” Blaine teased, knocking their shoulders, causing butterflies to erupt in Kurt’s stomach.

“I was just protecting your hard work! It should go to someone who appreciates it.”

“Oh really? And that’s you, not Finn?”

Kurt turned to glare at him, stopping at a street corner. “You’ve seen him eat. He’ll eat virtually anything but he never quite stops to appreciate how good it tastes because he’s already thinking about the next thing on his plate.”

Blaine merely laughed, shaking his head, a wide grin on his face as he crossed the street. “I think you just wanted it all to yourself, Hummel.”


	8. Chapter 8

Despite the cold, and the fact that he’d left Vogue later than planned, Kurt was in a really good mood when he entered the apartment a little after seven. Even if he’d been feeling horrible however, he probably wouldn’t have been able to keep himself from smiling at what he heard from the kitchen.

“I’m your big and brave and handsome Romeo,” Kurt heard Blaine sing loudly along with his ipod. “How I won you I shall never never know.”

He closed the door quietly behind him and set his bag on the floor before creeping into the kitchen.

“I’ve got a crush on you, sweetie pieeee,” Blaine continued, flourishing the towel he’d presumably been using to dry dishes.

“Having fun?” Kurt asked,  struggling to stifle a laugh as Blaine froze, and then slowly turned to face him, a blush high on his cheeks.

“...How long have you been standing there?” he asked, twisting the towel in his hands.

“Long enough that I’m wondering why you’re so happy, not long enough that I’ve recovered from the cold out there,” Kurt shrugged, a little confused by just how startled Blaine looked, but deciding he wouldn’t question it right then.

“Oh, um,” Blaine scratched the back of his neck nervously. “I’m just, really looking forward to seeing my family over Christmas break?”

“Are you asking me if that’s what you’re looking forward to?” Kurt asked, not having any idea what was going on. “Are you okay, or are you losing it over finals two weeks ahead of schedule?”

“No. No, I was just, ah,” Blaine glanced up at him and then back at the floor again before making eye contact. Something was definitely going on. “I’m fine, I was just making dinner actually. Lasagna, if you’re interested?”

There was a hopeful look in his eyes that Kurt couldn’t put together with all of the other weird behavior, but his stomach chose that moment to rumble loudly so he stopped thinking about it. “Lasagna sounds delicious. I’m going to go change, I’ll be back in a minute.”

* * *

 

The Friday before Christmas, Kurt trudged into the apartment, cold and covered in a thin layer of melting snow. He removed his boots and jacket and then headed to the kitchen where he heard Blaine singing along to We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Kurt wasn’t sure what exactly was causing it, but ever since Thanksgiving, Blaine had been singing a lot more. Whatever it was, Kurt wasn’t complaining.

As Kurt walked through the door Blaine twirled to grab something from the pantry. “Oh hey!” he grinned, “I didn’t hear you come in.”

“I was quiet, you were singing,” Kurt shrugged. “What’re you making?” he added, glancing at the milk on the counter next to the boiling water.

“Just making some hot chocolate for us.” Blaine replied, returning to the stove with a bag of chocolate and gently nudging Kurt out of the way with his hip. “I saw the snow and figured you wouldn’t be able to say no.”

Blaine mixed the ingredients together while Kurt grabbed each of their favorite mugs and set them down on the counter. “Well, that was very thoughtful of you.”

“And now,” Blaine passed Kurt a full mug, “You are obligated to watch at least one Christmas movie with me.”

“I knew there was going to be a catch.” Kurt took a sip of his hot cocoa while Blaine cleaned up. “Fine,” he said, bringing his mug away from his mouth. “What movie are we watching?”

“Really?” Blaine beamed at him for a moment before leading the way to the living room and plopping down in front of the TV. “I was thinking White Christmas. It’s a classic and I am in love with Bing Crosby’s voice. Plus, it’s snowing.”

“You know, I’ve never actually seen White Christmas.”

“What?” Blaine exclaimed, whirling around to stare at Kurt in disbelief. Blaine stood there for a moment before moving to sit on the couch next to him. “How? No. Not possible.”

Kurt’s poker face finally collapsed after a few more moments of Blaine staring at him in shock and he doubled over laughing. “I watched that movie all the time in high school. Oh my god, you should have seen your face.”

Blaine pouted, slouching down and crossing his arms “Not nice.” Kurt giggled. Blaine continued pouting until Kurt finally broke.

“No! Not fair, put the puppy dog eyes away.”

“The only way to turn them off is if you apologize.”

“Yeah... not happening.” They both starred at each other for a moment, when Blaine suddenly lunged at Kurt. Kurt gasped in surprised and then started helplessly laughing. “Stop... Blaine...” he gasped, “tic... tickles.”

“What was that?” Blaine asked, grinning down at Kurt as he held him down and continued tickling him mercilessly. “That didn’t sound like an apology.”

“Stop,” Kurt choked out, wriggling beneath Blaine, desperately trying to free himself.

“Stop? But you’re laughing.”

“I’m sorry okay?” Kurt gasped loudly.

“There we go.” Blaine smirked down at Kurt, no longer tickling him. “Now was that so hard?”

“No,” Kurt said slowly, “No it wasn’t.” Blaine was still on top of him. Why was he there? If he stayed there Kurt was going to do something stupid, like - shit. Kurt was staring at Blaine’s mouth, wasn’t he? He immediately blushed and returned his gaze to Blaine’s eyes... which were focused on Kurt’s lips. Kurt instinctively licked his lips and watched Blaine’s eyes track the movement.

Just as Kurt was about to throw caution to the wind and kiss Blaine, there was a loud quacking noise as Blaine’s phone went off, startling both of them. Blaine was so surprised that he fell off of the couch landing on the floor with a loud “oof.”

After Kurt finished laughing at the disgruntled and confused look on Blaine’s face, and Blaine had turned the alarm on his phone off, they made popcorn and settled in to watch White Christmas. Half way through, Blaine curled up next to Kurt, resting his head on his shoulder. Together, they quietly sang along to all of the musical numbers. When the movie ended they both stayed where they were and watched the credits roll. When the DVD cut back to the menu, Blaine sighed sadly before standing up.

“I guess it’s time for bed,” he said, turning off the TV and folding the blanket he had been using. “Thanks for watching that with me Kurt,” Blaine said, smiling at him.

“The pleasure was all mine,” Kurt yawned. “Ugh, I should probably go to bed too. Especially because I have all of those errands to do before I fly out on Sunday.”

“Oh right, I’d forgotten that you were leaving before me.” Blaine followed Kurt into the kitchen with the popcorn bowl. Kurt turned on the water to start washing their mugs but Blaine stopped him. “I can do them in the morning. You should definitely get some sleep. I’ve seen your to-do list and you need rest.”

Kurt glanced at the dishes, not wanting to leave them in the sink overnight, but after a moment he relented, eyeing the bowl and pot that Blaine had left behind earlier. “Okay, I guess they can wait.” He turned and headed out the door, “Goodnight Blaine.”

“Goodnight Kurt.”

* * *

 

Two days after Christmas, Kurt decided to call Blaine. He missed him, and there was a New Year’s party at Puck’s house that he wanted to invite him to.

“Hi there stranger,” Blaine said when he answered the phone, smile evident in his voice.

“Hi yourself,” Kurt retorted, too distracted by the warmth Blaine’s voice sent through him to come up with a witty response.

“What’s up? You having a good Christmas?”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s been good. We had Rachel’s family over, and Carole and I cooked, and it was a lot of fun. I felt like the weird seventh wheel or something spending the day with three married couples, but I love them, so,” Kurt shrugged, trailing off. “How has your break been?”

“Good. Good, really good. Cooper introduced us to his girlfriend, and then the three of us pretended we were little kids again and built a gingerbread house and stuff. It was a lot of fun. Now, I’m trying to finish making the Christmas cookies before they all come back and try to tell me I’m putting too much sugar on them.”

“You know,” Kurt interjected, “for a guy who told me he couldn’t cook, you sure do cook a lot. And everything you’ve made me has been delicious.”

“That’s baking, Kurt. Baking I can do.”

“What about that lasagna you made!” Kurt said accusingly.

“Well, there’s an exception to every rule, isn’t there?”

“I hate that phrase, but I’ll let it slide for now.”

There was silence for a moment, and then Blaine asked, “Was there something particular you wanted to talk about, or were you just calling to chat?”

“I, uh, actually, yeah. I wanted to ask you about New Year’s,” Kurt said, getting up to pace his room nervously.

“New Year’s?”

“Well, New Year’s Eve, actually. Uh, my friend Puck is throwing a party at his house, and he mostly invited people from our glee club, but from the sound of it almost everyone invited along a few other people. Mostly significant others, except for the ones who go to school around here. But. Yeah. I don’t know if you had plans or anything, but I thought it might be fun if you came. You could meet some of my high school friends, plus Rachel, Santana, and Finn will be there, and you’ve already met them.”

“I would love to come, but I was actually planning on hanging out with some of my friends from Dalton…”

“As long as it’s only a few of them, I’m sure Puck wouldn’t mind them coming along,” Kurt offered. “If you just want to do your own thing though, I totally get it.”

“I’ll talk to them about it, I know Jeff said something about wanting to go to a party, but none of our parents would let us throw one so… as long as me and four other people would be alright? I know that’s kind of a lot to ask.”

“Yeah, yeah, that should be fine. I’ll text you the address once you let me know?”

“Sounds perfect. I should go now, but I’ll talk to the guys about it.”

“Okay, bye!”

“Bye Kurt!”


	9. Chapter 9

Blaine rang Puck’s doorbell; Jeff, Nick, Wes, and Trent all standing awkwardly behind him. After they had waited anxiously for a minute, the door opened.

“Who’re you?”

Blaine looked the guy up and down, noting the mohawk and the beer he was holding. Taking a breath and straightening up Blaine tried to put forth an air of confidence as he spoke. “I’m Blaine. Kurt invited my friends and I to the party…” he trailed off, attempting to peer behind mohawk guy in hopes of glimpsing Kurt.

Puck eyed him for a moment before grinning. “Wait, you’re Kurt’s roommate, aren’t you?” Blaine nodded. “Okay, he, like, hasn’t shut up about you all break. It’s nice to meet you, I’m Puck.” Blaine repressed the urge to flinch at the hand thrust in front of him, before shaking it.

“It’s nice to meet you. These are my friends,” Blaine gestured to each boy as he said their name.

“Well, come on in. You’re probably dying to see your boyfriend.”

“I-, what?” Blaine spluttered as he stepped inside. Puck, however, just continued speaking.

“Now the rest of you boys better not steal all of the girls. The Puckster has plans to get laid tonight.”

“Yeah, ok, whatever you say.” Santana walked by, talking quietly with a blond haired girl and smacked Puck before heading down the stairs to the basement.

“Ignore her,” Puck grumbled, glaring at the retreating girls’ back. “Party’s this way.” Puck gestured with his beer and turned down the stairs.

Several people yelled greetings to Puck as he walked in, Blaine was too busy taking in the room and looking for Kurt to pay attention to who was yelling. When Blaine finally spotted him off in a corner wrapped in a conversation with Rachel he grinned broadly.

Wes, following Blaine’s gaze, nudged him. “You go talk to him. We’ll be around later if you want to introduce us.”

Blaine decided it would be best not to argue and nodded his ascension, heading towards Kurt.

“Hey Kurt!” he exclaimed when he reached him, glad for the low lighting in the room that was hopefully hiding his blush.

“Blaine!” Rachel squealed, jumping up and heading for him. Kurt, however, was too fast for her and stood up, blocking her path to him. “You came!” he shouted, pulling Blaine into a hug, Rachel pouting next to him.

“Of course I did. I brought some of my Warbler buddies with me, they wanted to meet you at some point.”

Rachel finally butted in, greeting Blaine as Kurt glared at her. After exchanging pleasantries and receiving a few pointed comments from Kurt, she left the two of them alone.

The two of them then spent the next hour catching up. Kurt told Blaine about his dad’s attempts at helping cook. Blaine told Kurt about Cooper running around the house making their turkey dance and sing until their parents threatened to make him sit in his room all Christmas. Eventually, the Warblers stopped by, Jeff interrupting Blaine mid-sentence to introduce himself to Kurt.

“Hi, I’m Jeff. I roomed with Blaine in high school, and I am so sorry if he still does that thing where he just _has_ to- ow!” Blaine smacked Jeff’s arm, before ducking behind Wes. “What was that for?” Jeff demanded, glaring at Blaine.

“I didn’t invite you here so you could exchange notes about what it’s like living with me,” Blaine said, moving so he was now standing on Wes’s other side, out of reach of Jeff. “Besides, Kurt and I have separate rooms. It’s a totally different situation.”

“Whatever you say, weirdo,” Jeff replied, rolling his eyes.

“Do I need to give you guys a minute to sort this out?” Kurt asked teasingly.

“Just ignore him,” Blaine said, shooting one last warning glare at Jeff. The last thing he needed was Kurt learning about his feelings for him because Jeff decided to be an idiot.

“I’m Wes,” Wes said, stepping forward to shake Kurt’s hand. Even after a few drinks, Wes prided himself on his manners. “Thank you for inviting us to join.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Kurt said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “You’re friends of Blaine’s. It wasn’t a problem.”

“See, dude,” Nick hissed, elbowing Blaine in the ribs. “He totally likes you.”

“Well of course he _likes_ me,” Blaine shot back. “I would hope that at his stage he didn’t hate me.”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it,” Nick whispered to him before looking back over at Kurt. “Hi, I’m Nick.”

“You’re the one who… you go to UCLA, right?”

“Yeah, actually, why?”

“My friend Mercedes - she’s over there on the couch - goes there as well.”

“I’ll have to meet her later,” Nick replied. He glanced back and forth between their conversation and Mercedes for a moment and then backed up a step, “I think I’ll do that now actually.”

There was silence for a moment, until Trent introduced himself. The remaining Warblers stayed to chat for twenty minutes or so before wandering away to refill their drinks.

“So those are your Warbler friends then?”

“Yup, unfortunately.” Blaine said with a sigh. “Somehow I’m not sick of them even after three years of boarding school. They grow on you eventually.”

“They seemed nice,a little crazy, but I think that’s to be expected of anyone. God only knows how insane New Directions can get. Even _with_ a married couple among them, they find a way to stir up relationship drama.”

As the party wore on, Blaine found himself having to move closer and closer so he could hear Kurt over the music and Kurt could hear him. He wasn’t all that inclined to complain about this development, as it gave him an excuse to stand close to Kurt and talk into his ear. However, it did mean that he had to repeatedly stop himself from doing something like wrap an arm around him, or kiss him. It was almost too much to handle with a few drinks in him and Kurt _right there_ , but he somehow managed it.

Eventually, there was dancing, and more food, and then, suddenly, everyone was counting down around them, and everyone was grabbing someone to kiss.

“Ten... nine... eight.”

Blaine glanced around as he noticed that everyone but Kurt and himself were paired up. He swallowed nervously, wondering if he should kiss Kurt.

“Five... four…”

He glanced over at Kurt who seemed to be nervously staring down at the ground.

“Two... one…”

“Happy New Year!!”

Blaine heard Kurt take a breath beside him, and then, suddenly, he was leaning in; Kurt’s lips capturing Blaine’s. They stayed kissing like that, Blaine’s tongue tentatively entering Kurt’s mouth for some of the longest yet shortest minutes of Blaine’s life (he was kissing _Kurt_.  He was actually doing it). The moment was shattered however when someone wolf whistled and several others cheered, causing them to spring apart. They glanced at each other, and then looked away again, both of them breathing heavily. Blaine was about to say something when Kurt was enveloped by a gaggle of girls talking a mile a minute.

After a moment of indecision, Blaine stood up and walked over to Wes and Trent who were standing by the chips.

“So are you two a thing now?” Wes asked, teasingly.

“I.. have no idea. I mean, I hope so? But that was the first time we’ve ever kissed or, anything… Besides, we live together. It could be a challenge…”

“Okay, okay,” Trent broke in. “How about you just tell us how the kiss was, and fill us in on the rest after you guys talk about it?”

An hour later Blaine was still waiting for a chance to talk to Kurt about what had happened, because he would love to be able to continue holding and kissing Kurt like that. Except, maybe- what if Kurt didn’t want that? What if it was just because it was midnight on New Year’s and he wanted to kiss someone? Despite Blaine’s now diluted efforts at finding a gap in Kurt’s conversation with the girls, he didn’t find one.

At 2am the Warblers decided it was time to leave. Blaine finally interrupted Kurt’s conversation with Mercedes to say goodbye. He was about to mention the kiss to Kurt but lost his nerve at the last second. He merely hugged Kurt tightly, murmured goodbye, and then left.


	10. Chapter 10

The end of Winter vacation arrived and Kurt and Blaine still hadn’t spoken about the kiss. In fact they hadn’t really spoken at all beyond a few texts. Boarding his plane back to New York, Blaine decided he wouldn’t bring it up unless Kurt did. He’d made several attempts to get coffee with Kurt, but every time he suggested something, Kurt claimed to be too busy and he never told Blaine a time he would be free, Blaine had concluded that Kurt didn’t want to talk about it. Perhaps it hadn’t actually meant anything and Blaine thinking it had was making him uncomfortable.

Blaine didn’t see Kurt until he got back from his first day of classes on Wednesday. When he entered the apartment it was to the small of stir fry and garlic bread.

“Kurt?” he called out.

“In the kitchen!” Kurt sang. “I’m making dinner for us if you want some stir fry.”

“How could I possibly say no to that?” Blaine asked, walking into the kitchen after throwing his bag into his room. Kurt didn’t turn around immediately, enabling Blaine to blatantly check him out from behind (damn, those jeans looked good on him) before he snapped himself out of it, focusing on Kurt’s words and remembering that their kiss meant nothing.

Kurt finished cooking and they sat down across from each other at the table. “So how was the rest of your vacation?” Kurt asked, not looking up from where he was putting stir fry on his plate.

“It was…” Blaine glanced down, he wanted to say boring and that he spent it worrying and missing Kurt, but he didn’t. Instead he said “Uneventful. I hung out with some of my Warbler buddies a few times but that was about it. How was yours?” he added, looking up in time to see Kurt return his focus to his plate.

“Busy. I helped out with glee club a few times, worked at my dad’s shop, and hung out with some friends.”

They veered off the topic of vacation after that, neither of them wanting to linger on the subject. They ended up discussing the coming semester and their classes instead. After dinner, Blaine volunteered to do the dishes. His heart sunk a bit and he sighed quietly to himself when Kurt went into his room and closed the door instead of staying and drying the dishes like he used to.

* * *

 

The first week back from break felt long. It should have gone by quickly in a whirlwind of catching up with New York based friends, picking up a few extra shifts at the dinner before school started, but it just dragged. He’d barely been home for three days when he broke down and decided he needed to call Rachel about his current situation. Things were awkward between him and Blaine, and he was afraid Blaine felt uncomfortable around him after they had kissed. He needed someone else’s opinion. Of course, the conversation quickly devolved because Rachel was rarely good at giving relationship advice.

“Rachel,” Kurt hissed into the phone. “I don’t know what to say to him. I can’t just tell him that that kiss meant something to me! What if it meant nothing to him? Then living together is going to become so awkward!”

“Kurt, from the sound of it, things are already pretty awkward. _Talking to him_ might clear the air.”

Kurt sighed. “I just, I don’t want to lose him as a friend, and I really don’t want to have to find a new apartment. I also don’t know if I can handle a direct rejection.”

“I’m sorry sweetie. It’s up to you, I still say you should talk to him or _sing_ to him. It got me Finn,” she practically sang into the phone.

“Yes, well of course it did,” Kurt sighed. “I don’t know, I guess I’ll think about it?”

“That’s all I’m asking sweetie.” There was silence on the line for a few minutes before Kurt let out a breath.

“Alright, enough about me. What about you, how’s Finn? How’s school?”

“Well last nig-”

“Wait. Let me clarify. I don’t want to hear anything about your sex life with my brother. Got it?”

“You’re no fun.”

* * *

 

Blaine heard a knock at the door and let Wes in. As he stepped inside, Wes glanced around the apartment and took it in. “Wow, it looks so much better than it did last time I was here.”

“Well hello to you too, Wesley.”  Blaine glared at him for a moment before adding “Kurt and I have done a lot of redecorating.” Wes raised his eyebrows, “Well, Kurt mostly has, I’ve helped a little here and there and bought some of the furniture and things with him.”

“Awww,” Wes teased “Cute, you guys are already practically an old married couple.” Wes’s grin died out a little at the look on Blaine’s face. “What? Blaine?”

Blaine sighed. He wanted to discuss the whole Kurt situation with Wes, in fact that was why he had invited him over, but at the same time he didn’t want to worry his friend about him or make the situation more real to himself than it already was. He wandered over to the couch and plunked himself down, followed closely by Wes.

“Kurt’s been acting weird since New Year’s. We’ve had conversations and stuff since then, but we haven’t really _talked_.”

Wes gave him a calculating look before he spoke. “Did you at least discuss the New Year’s kiss?”

“ _No,_ ” Blaine let out a noise of frustration. “I was going to talk to him about it over break, but he was so busy that I didn’t get to see him. So I was going to talk to him about it once we got back, but he’s just been acting like it had never happened and that everything is fine and dandy and I just... I haven’t brought it up. I’m afraid that if I do he’ll shoot me down completely.”

“Blaine, it sounds to me like you’re losing him as it is _because_ you haven’t talked about it. You guys are both avoiding the issue and therefore you’re avoiding each other.”

Blaine sighed. He knew Wes was probably right, but it wasn’t so simple. What if the kiss had meant nothing to Kurt? What if Blaine was just making all the awkwardness up in his head? What if it was there because Kurt had realized on New Years that Blaine liked him but he didn’t feel the same way? “I guess. I don’t know, it sounds so simple out loud but it’s just... not.”

“Ok, you think about it and we’ll spend the night watching movies and eating some junk food to try and make you feel better?”

Blaine smiled softly. “That sounds wonderful. Thank you Wes.”

* * *

With the return to school and work and Kurt’s internship came a change of schedule. Blaine no longer had class as early as Kurt did. So they rarely saw each other in the mornings, meaning it was easy to avoid each other all day. Kurt wasn’t entirely sure why he kept avoiding Blaine, when really he needed to just talk to him about the kiss and clear the air. Or at the very least, just act as though nothing had happened.

Instead he found himself intentionally waiting until he knew Blaine was in his room before making food. It wasn’t long before he found himself with Blaine’s schedule memorized. Which was why he was so surprised when Blaine walked into the kitchen four hours before he was supposed to be home.

“Hey Kurt,” Blaine said, opening the fridge.

Kurt jumped, whirling around from where he was making pasta on the stove. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I, um, live here?” Blaine said, sending Kurt a confused look.

“It’s just that you’re never home this early,” Kurt said, returning attention to the pasta.

“My afternoon shift got cancelled… I was going to make a snack actually, but I’ll just-”

“The stove is all yours,” Kurt interrupted, finishing with the pasta. “I’ll leave you to it.”

And with that, he bustled back into his room, avoiding eye contact with Blaine, because for some reason he had to continue making things awkward.


	11. Chapter 11

It was February and things continued to be weird between them. They still got along wonderfully, but Blaine felt a tension there, and it seemed as though Kurt was pulling away from him.

Blaine was studying in his room and Kurt was sketching designs in his. Blaine sighed and put his pen down, thoroughly done with focusing for the rest of his life, or at the very least, the night, if he could manage it. Getting up from the desk, Blaine walked out and knocked on Kurt’s door.

He heard the sound of paper being shuffled around before Kurt’s voice traveled out to him. “Yeah? You can come in if you want.”

Blaine opened the door cautiously and glanced around. Kurt was sitting on the floor, leaning against his bed, long legs tucked up in front of him. There were sketches scattered in piles and a mass of crumpled drawings in the recycling. Kurt himself somehow managed to still look impeccable despite the graphite covering his hands and smudged up his arms where he’d rolled up his sleeves. Not to mention the gray smudges across his forehead and cheek.

“What’s up?” Kurt’s voice floated to Blaine, interrupting his thoughts of wiping the smudge off his cheek and then pulling him into a kiss.

“Oh! Right!” Blaine tried to remember why he had come in. “I, umm, oh yeah! I can’t focus on my work so I decided to take a break. I was wondering if you wanted to join me in getting some coffee or something? I feel like I need to get out of the apartment,” Blaine finished with a hopeful smile.

He watched Kurt, waiting for a response. Kurt stared back at him for a minute contemplatively before glancing around at all of the sketches he had been working on.

“It’s okay if you don’t wa- ”

Kurt got up from where he was sitting. “I’d love to go. Honestly, anything to get me away from my sketches right now would be wonderful. Just give me a minute to rinse off?” Kurt asked holding his hands up.

“Yeah, sure, sounds good. I’ll go grab my shoes.” Blaine turned, grinning, and walked down the hall.

* * *

When they entered the shop they ordered their coffees and sat down at their usual table. “So, I take it you haven’t gotten very far on your sketches?” Blaine asked, putting his coffee down and looking up at Kurt.

Kurt sighed and set his cup down as well. “I have this idea, and I’m so close to getting it, but for some reason I just can’t seem to get it on paper properly. I know exactly what I want, and it should _work,_ it just isn’t translating when I sketch it.”

“I don’t know if you have time for this, or if it’s even allowed, but you could attempt to make the actual piece even if you can’t sketch it.” Blaine suggested, taking a sip of his coffee.

Kurt stared contemplatively out the window for a few moments, fiddling with the cup of coffee in his hands. “I might actually be abl-” he stopped talking suddenly and looked up. Blaine glanced around confused for a moment before discovering the cause of Kurt’s distraction. A guy from his history class had approached the table and was looking directly at Blaine.

“Hey Blaine, how’re you?”

“I’m good, just taking a study break with my roommate, Kurt. How’re you?”

“Better now,” he winked at Blaine, reaching out and gripping his shoulder. “Actually, I’ve been meaning to give you this.” Blaine watched, glancing over at Kurt to see an annoyed look on his face, as Todd scribbled his number down on a napkin and handed it to him. “Give me a call sometime if you want to go out, or, you know, whatever.” He winked again and then strutted out the door, leaving behind a very confused, shell-shocked Blaine and an unhappy Kurt.

The two of them sat in silence for a moment, Blaine staring down at the napkin in surprise (seriously guys _never_ gave him their number, well, as long as you ignored Sebastian and his first few months as a Warbler). Just as Blaine was shaking his head to clear it and attempt to get their conversation back on track, Kurt spoke.

“Well he seemed like a charmer, I’ll just leave you to-”

“Kurt-” Blaine tried to cut across, startled by the hurt that was buried in his tone, only to have Kurt talk over him.

“-call him. I should go, I have lots to do.” And with that, Kurt stood up, threw out his half empty coffee and hurried out of the shop. Blaine stared after him, not really understanding what had happened.

He was suddenly knocked out of his reverie by a dish rag hitting him in the face. “Go after him you moron, he thinks you like that guy that just gave you his number!” Blaine threw the rag back as he saw the barista, Kristen, pointing out the door that was just closing behind Kurt.

“I- what? Why would Kurt care?” Blaine asked. “He doesn’t like me that way.”

Kristen snorted. “He doesn’t- yeah okay, sure. Keep telling yourself that sweetheart.”

Blaine stared at her blankly. “Why wouldn’t he say anything if he had feelings for me...?”

“I can’t tell you, but if _you_ have feelings for him, which I strongly suspect you do, you need to go tell him that. Right now. Before he gets any more stupid ideas about your dating life.”

* * *

Kurt finally made it to the fourth floor, ramming his key into the lock while Blaine fumed at him. “It’s not even like it’s any of your business who I go out with Kurt! Why do you even care?” he demanded, slamming the door behind him. He’d finally caught up with Kurt about a block away from their apartment, and after asking what was wrong, Kurt had snapped at him and the discussion had escalated quickly, to say the least.

“Because I’m in love with you, you _idiot!_ ” Kurt yelled, whirling around. The second the words left him Kurt cringed and slapped a hand over his mouth, eyes wide. _Shit._ _Shit. Shit. Shit. I did not mean to say that, he’s going to hate me now if he doesn’t already._ Why _did I have to cause such a stink about one guys number. He didn’t even say he was going to_ call _him for Pete’s sake._

Blaine came to a complete halt, facing Kurt, staring at him with his mouth wide open; an odd expression on his face as his fists slowly unclenched. Kurt merely stood there frozen in disbelief that he had actually just _yelled_ that at _Blaine._ After a moment Blaine finally closed his mouth then opened it again to stutter out “… W- what did you just say?”

Held in place by Blaine’s gaze Kurt managed to squeak out, “I’m in love with you?” from behind the hand he still had over his mouth before he decided that he really needed to just stop talking. Like, two “I’m in love with you’s” ago.

At his words Blaine reached for the couch, immediately collapsing onto it with a soft thump. Kurt watched him carefully as he ran his fingers through his hair while looking at the floor. As he watched, Kurt debated just diving into his room and hiding there until the end of time. Just as he was about to do exactly that, Blaine looked up suddenly, reaching out his hand silently asking Kurt to come sit with him on the couch.

Kurt nervously sat down at the opposite end, perched on the edge of the cushions. Blaine for some reason was having none of it and moved over, grabbing Kurt’s hands, and sitting so that they were side by side, angled slightly towards each other, knees touching. Kurt expected Blaine to let go of his hands once he had settled into his seat again, but instead Blaine merely adjusted his grasp so that he was basically holding Kurt’s hands.

“Kur-”

“Blaine, I know you don’t feel the same way and that’s oka-” Kurt said, cutting Blaine off for fear of being rejected and kicked out of the apartment.

Blaine blinked up at him in confusion, trying to start up again, “I-”

“No, no, it’s okay Blaine, I understand. I mean, look at you-”

“Ku-”

“We can just pretend I never said that and go back to how things were before New Year’s. You should go call that guy, Todd? I’m just gonna – gonna go for a walk.”

Kurt stood up, not looking at Blaine. He slid his hands out of Blaine’s now limp grasp and turned, heading back to the door they’d just burst through. Breathing deeply and trying not to let any tears fall until he made it safely outside, Kurt walked briskly to the door. In his haste he completely missed what was happening behind him.

Blaine’s face had gone from hope and disbelief when Kurt had said he was in love with him; to complete bewilderment at Kurt’s insistence that they ignore what he’d said and just be friends - because Kurt apparently thought that that was what Blaine wanted - to shock when Kurt had suggested he go on a date with that Todd moron (there was seriously no way that Todd had dinner and a kiss goodnight at the door in mind when he’d given Blaine his number).

By the time Kurt had reached the door Blaine had finally been able to force himself to move. Making a beeline for Kurt he leapt over the back of the sofa, dodged some magazines that had fallen when they came in, and then slammed the door closed. He spun Kurt around, grabbed his face with both hands and pushed him back against the door with his body, kissing him as though his life depended on it.

Before Kurt’s brain had even caught up with the sudden change in events he was kissing Blaine back, hands buried in his curls. After several minutes, the need for air began to threaten his ability to stay attached to Blaine’s mouth indefinitely. Kurt pulled back, panting slightly. _Blaine had just kissed him._ Blaine. _His best friend whom he’d been crushing on since like day one_ was kissing him. _And it wasn’t a New Year’s thing. Could- no. But. No, this definitely seemed as though Blaine was at least partially returning his feelings for him. There was no way this was what rejection felt like. Kurt_ knew _rejection._  Kurt smiled, biting his lip, as he glanced up to see Blaine trying to follow his lips, eyes still closed.

Kurt moved his arms to wrap them around Blaine’s neck as Blaine slowly opened his eyes. A smile spread across Blaine’s face as he caught sight of the happiness in Kurt’s eyes. He shifted his arms so that they were no longer pinning Kurt’s hips to the door (when had _that_ happened?), instead wrapping them around his waist. He leaned his forehead against Kurt’s, staring into his eyes.

Smiling softly Blaine quietly said, “Now that I seem to finally have your attention…”

“I’m sorry I-” Kurt started to say.

Blaine immediately reattached their mouths, tugging gently at Kurt’s lower lip, cutting off his interruption.

Pulling away again after a moment Blaine spoke. “Am I going to have to keep doing that or are you going to let me talk?”

“I fail to see why you think that threatening to kiss me is going to make me stop talking.”

“Kuuuurrrt.”

Kurt teasingly responded, “Blaiinneeee.”

Sighing in mock exasperation, Blaine took Kurt’s left hand in his and kissed the back of it slowly. He kept his eyes locked on Kurt’s, causing his knees to buckle. Slotting their fingers together, he moved their hands to rest by Kurt’s head.

Upon doing this Blaine took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he did so. Kurt watched him, waiting as patiently as possible for him to say something. In all honesty, it was mostly just a struggle not to dive in and kiss Blaine. When Blaine opened his eyes again, he immediately locked his gaze onto Kurt’s and began rubbing circles on Kurt’s left hand with his thumb as he let out a breath “I’mkindasortacompletelyinlovewithyoutoo- _mmph_ ”

At those words Kurt had leaned forward and began kissing him once more. Pulling away after a few moments Kurt smirked at Blaine’s slightly dazed expression and said, “Sorry… you were saying?”

“Well, I was _going_ to do some more talking about how I’ve basically been in love with you since Thanksgiving, and ask if you would do me the honor of being my boyfriend, or see if you would at least be willing to go on a date with me, but I don’t know if I want to date someone who’s going to get all snarky with me and then not let me talk when I’m about to ask him on a date…”

As Blaine trailed off at the end of the sentence Kurt smacked him lightly on the shoulder, smirking. “What, you afraid you won’t be able to handle me Anderson?” At this Blaine tilted his head up, brushing his lips over Kurt’s lightly.

“So I’ll take that as a yes to all of the above then?”

Laughing, Kurt held him tighter and said “Yes, you dork, I would love nothing more than to go on a date with you and be your boyfriend. Well… actually I take that back. I’d also really love my own fashion line.” Kurt stuck his tongue out at Blaine before suddenly trying to leap away, “Hey! That’s abuse, you can’t hit your boyfriend!”

Blaine rolled his eyes, “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind next time I lightly smack your shoulder in retaliation for you emotionally wounding me.”

* * *

 

A half hour later they found themselves back at the coffee shop. “Can we sit at the offending table, or are we going to need to find a new regular spot?”

Laughing a little, Kurt swung their clasped hands between the two of them. “We can sit at the offending table. It did help us finally get together after all, so I guess I shouldn’t begrudge it too much.”

“Okay, you go grab the table then and I’ll get your usual? Unless you want something else of course!”

“As long as I get to pay next time,” Kurt said, not letting go of his hand.

Blaine pouted slightly at him, clearly wanting to protest. After a moment of mulling it over, he nodded his agreement.

“Okay, I’ll wait for you at the table then?” Kurt asked.

“So you guys worked it out then?” The barista asked as Blaine reached the counter.

“Yes,” Blaine grinned. “We- We definitely made it more difficult than it needed to be, but we figured it out.”

“And your first date is _here?_ ” she asked sceptically.

“No! No. Of course not. We both have stuff to work on tonight, so the real date will be later. This weekend. It’ll happen.”

Kristen beamed at him. “Good. I’ll get your coffees to you in a minute.”

Blaine went to hand her his credit card, only to have her shake her head at him, pushing the card away. “On the house.”

Once their coffees were ready, Blaine grabbed them and headed over to the table. He slid into his seat and passed Kurt his drink. As soon as Kurt finished adding sugar to his drink, Blaine grabbed his hand off the table and laced their fingers together.

“So.”

“…So what?”

Blaine took a measured sip of his coffee. “Are you ever going to tell me the story of when you fell in love with me?”

Kurt looked up, mid sip, “You ask that as though we made an agreement that I would tell you tonight.” Placing his cup gently down on the table, Kurt continued. “If I tell you, you have to tell me when _you_ fell in love with _me_ so that we can lament the loss of time that we could’ve been spending making out or cuddling.”

“Deal! I mean I already told you that it was Thanksgiving…”

“Yes, but I don’t get _why_ it was then.”

“Yes, well,” Blaine let go of his coffee cup to rest his chin in the palm of his hand and smile at Kurt. “I’ll tell you why once you answer my question.”

“…Well… it was. Remember that Katy Perry concert you dragged me to?”

“Yes of course I do.” Blaine replied grinning at the memory. “That was a good night.”

“Yeah. Well.”

“Yes Kurt?” Blaine fluttered his eyelashes in Kurt’s direction with a teasing smile on his face.

“…I fell in love with you at that damn Katy Perry concert.” Blaine blinked at him in slight surprise.

“Really?”

Sighing, Kurt smiled softly at the memory, “I think that was the first time I saw you really let loose in a big group of people. You were just. You were so excited about that show. And then at the end, when she came out singing Teenage Dream for the encore, you _beamed_ at me and started singing along, and you were even doing this cute little shuffle-step dance to it. I was kind of worried that you were going to injure yourself you were smiling so hard. And the moment your eyes lit up like that I just knew that there was no use trying to forget about that crush I had on you because it definitely wasn’t going to go away anytime soon.

“Now. Your turn to tell me what it was about Thanksgiving that made you realize.”

“It was kind of the same thing,” Blaine said, fiddling with his coffee cup a little before looking up. “You were just in your element, preparing Thanksgiving dinner and then we were eating dinner and you were just… you looked so happy and relaxed. You just weren’t worried about anything because it was the _holidays_ and you were with _family_. And I realized how much I enjoyed being included in that. How much it felt like we could just be a couple.”

They walked out of the cafe twenty minutes later, fingers tangled together and hands swinging between them. “Well this night turned out better than I thought it would,” Kurt said as he glanced over at Blaine.

Blaine squeezed Kurt’s hand and kept walking towards their building. “It definitely turned out way nicer than I thought it would.”

They continued walking in silence, each focused on their own thoughts. 


	12. Epilogue

They’d been dating for three years now and they had somehow managed to secure their very own Christmas, just the two of them. Blaine’s parents had decided to go to the Bahamas that year. They’d invited Blaine, but he’d declined because of his new job teaching music at a performing arts high school. Kurt was originally supposed to head home for Christmas (he planned to extend the invitation to Blaine) but two days after Blaine had found out he wasn’t going home, Kurt was asked to work the day after Christmas through New Year’s with the possibility of a promotion. So they both found themselves looking forward to the prospect of Christmas In New York. Together. Just the two of them.

In the intervening month between Thanksgiving and Christmas they’d had numerous spats over traditions. Blaine wanted to go out and buy a tree to put up on Black Friday. Kurt wanted to go Black Friday shopping and wait until the middle of December. After a very loud argument that consisted mostly of Blaine throwing tinsel everywhere while Kurt bemoaned the commercialization of Christmas, it had all culminated in Blaine placing a handful of tinsel on Kurt’s head and Kurt promising Blaine that if he picked up all the tinsel by midnight (“ _All_ of it, Blaine. _ALL OF IT.”_ ) he could have his tree.

Blaine had spent two hours tediously picking up the tinsel strand by strand before he gave up and sprawled on the floor. “Kuurttt,” he whined. “You set me an impossible task. You did this to me on purpose, didn’t you?”

Blaine continued lying on the floor, playing with some tinsel as he heard Kurt put his work down in the office and walk into the room. “Honey, what’re you doing down there?”

“Dying,” Blaine groaned.

Kurt smiled softly, “Someone’s being dramatic.”

“I just want to know why you hate our future tree so much that you won’t even let it into the apartment for three weeks?”

“Well it’s not as though we’ve bought a tree yet,” Kurt replied, lying down next to Blaine on the floor. “Besides, why is it so important to you that we get a tree so early?”

Blaine sighed and rolled over to face Kurt, pushing his pile of tinsel aside. “Christmas has always been my favorite holiday,” Blaine explained. “Not so much the day itself, but the lead up to it. Everyone is just so happy at Christmas and I wish people were like that all the time.” He paused as Kurt rolled over to face him. “Besides, there’s so much Christmas stuff to be done and what better to spur us on than our very own Christmas tree? We’ve never had our own before. This year though we _can._ We need one. _Christmas_ Kurt!”

Kurt smiled at the bright eyed grin on Blaine’s face. “Okay, fine, I guess I can skip the Black Friday madness to get a tree with you.”

“Yay!” Blaine cheered, ducking in to kiss Kurt before hopping up off the floor quickly.

“Hey! Where’re you going?” Kurt asked, sitting up. Blaine paused on his way to their room.

“I’m pulling out the Christmas music of course!”

“Blaine,” Kurt laughed. “You are ridiculous. I have definitely never seen you this excited about Christmas and we’ve been living together for four years now.”

Blaine returned to where Kurt was now sitting. “I know, I’m just. I’m really happy that we’re getting to spend it alone together so I want to make sure we get to do all the fun Christmas stuff.”

“You’re done with all of your work for tonight right?”

“Yeah, why?” Blaine’s face fell into a pout. “Are you going to make me finish cleaning up this tinsel Kurt, because this stuff is worse than easter grass.”

Kurt laughed and stood up, pulling Blaine in close to him by the hips. “I was thinking more along the lines of ignoring this mess in favor of taking this to our room.”

Blaine stared back at him in confusion for a moment. “…Why?”

“Having copious amounts of sex with your significant other is definitely on the Christmas to-do list, so I figured we might as well get a head start. I’ll even tie you up with a bow if you want it to be more Christmassy!”

Blaine stood there for a moment longer, his mouth hanging open slightly before he scooped Kurt up onto his shoulder and ran with him into the bedroom.


End file.
